MSU Debate participated in back-to-back tournaments over the last week at the University of Kentucky and has big wins to show for it.

Joanna Gusis, a Statistics and Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy junior in the Honors College, and Stephen Lewis, a Social Relations and Policy sophomore, placed third at the Kentucky Thoroughbred Round Robin — an invitation-only tournament for seven of the top teams in the country.

Gusis and Lewis had wins over Dartmouth College, the University of Michigan, and California State University Long Beach which are some of the highest ranked teams in the country.

“The Kentucky Round Robin is an especially demanding tournament,” said Will Repko, the MSU Debate Team head coach. “With a pool of only seven teams, every debate is challenging, and you have to be debating well to excel there.”

Directly following the round robin tournament, the University of Kentucky hosted their open tournament — the J.W. Patterson Debates — where two teams from MSU reached the Sweet 16.

Gusis and Lewis were undefeated in the preliminary debates with wins over the University of Michigan, Wake Forest University, and four teams from Emory University. They entered the elimination debates as the second seed overall and defeated a team from the University of Kansas in the double octafinals before being bested in the Round of 16.

Tony Miklovis, an International Relations and Social Relations and Policy senior in the Honors College, and Blaine Montford, a Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy sophomore in the Honors College, defeated teams from Northwestern University, Wake Forest University, the University of Texas, Dallas, the University of Houston, and California State University, Long Beach to enter the elimination debates as the ninth seed.

Miklovis and Montford bested a team from the University of Houston in elimination debates and reached the Sweet 16 where they ultimately lost to a team from Dartmouth College.

“Having two teams in the top sixteen is an amazing result for MSU Debate. We’ve built up a lot of momentum over this week and there’s a lot to show for it,” said Kevin McCaffrey, an MSU Debate Team assistant coach.

 

MSU Debate was also represented at the J.W. Patterson Debates by Arielle Gearring, a Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy junior, Miaomiao Zi, an Interdisciplinary Humanities and English Concentration in Creative Writing junior in the Honors College, Zaria Jarman, a Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy sophomore, Hina Shehzad, an International Relations sophomore, Ephraim Bennett, a Computer Science senior, Glen Scully, a Computer Science junior, Omar Ansari, a Computer Science freshman in the Honors College and Aadit Agrahara, a Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy senior.

The MSU Debate team is part of the Honors College.

This story originally appeared on the Honors College website.