The Michigan State University debate team earned second place at the University of Kentucky tournament and won the Freshman National Championship this week.
Sean Lavelle, a political science/pre-law freshman, and Connor Munsinger, an Honors College computer science freshman, won the Freshman National Championship by defeating teams from Wake Forest University, Emory University and Harvard University.
The second place win was led by the team of Tyler Thur, an Honors College member and international relations junior, and his partner, math junior Margaret Strong. Both Thur and Strong also competed in the Kentucky Round Robin, held the weekend prior to the tournament, and took third place among the top nine teams across the country.
A field of 150 teams competed in the University of Kentucky tournament.
Thur and Strong were matched up in the quarterfinals with fellow teammates, international relations senior Jack Caporal and international relations senior Quinn Zemel. In situations where two teams from the same college meet in an elimination round, the higher-seeded team automatically advances and no debate is held.
Caporal and Zemel finished in the top eight after scoring wins against teams from the University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota.
Thur and Strong earned wins over teams from Harvard University, Georgetown University and the University of Kentucky before losing to a team from University of Michigan in the finals.
“Tyler and Margaret performed exceptionally at the University of Kentucky tournament and the Round Robin,” said head coach Will Repko. “It was also great to see Connor and Sean score a major win at the Freshman National Championship. I think this tournament for us demonstrated the depth of the MSU debate team.”
MSU sent eight teams to the Kentucky tournament, including: Lizzie Prete, James Madison undecided freshman; Breana Brill, political science freshman; Shannon Nierman, education junior; Shannon Fagan, Honors College, social relations and policy sophomore; Darcell Brown, political science sophomore; Jonass Placitis, social relations and policy sophomore; Sohela Suri, James Madison undecided sophomore; Wayne Campbell accounting freshman; Sagar Rathod, human biology and neuroscience freshman; and Naya Henderson, Lyman Briggs undecided freshman.
The next tournament in which the MSU debate team will compete will be held Oct. 25-27 at Harvard University.