MSU Debate finishes final four at JW Patterson Debates

MSU Debate had an impressive showing at the JW Patterson Debates hosted by the University of Kentucky this past weekend with one team finishing in the Final Four.

Joanna Gusis, a statistics and political theory and constitutional democracy senior in the Honors College, and Stephen Lewis, a social relations and policy junior, reached the semifinals after a long weekend of debates.

Gusis and Lewis won five of their six preliminary debates with wins over Stanford University, Northwestern University, Wake Forest University, Macalester College and Western Kentucky University.

After preliminary debates, teams were seeded into a single-elimination bracket based on their wins and overall speaker points. Gusis was the tournament’s second overall speaker from a field of more than 250 debaters and Lewis was eighth.

MSU was also represented at the Northwestern tournament by Glen Scully, a computer science senior, Zaria Jarman, a political theory and constitutional democracy junior, Henry Martin, a physics and philosophy freshman in the Honors College, and Isabella Foster, a philosophy and film freshman in the Honors College. “It was a great weekend to be a Spartan debater. Truly every team at the tournament had impressive wins and having three teams in elimination debates shows how hard everyone has been working,” said Jasmine Stidham, MSU Debate assistant coach.

Read the full story on the Honors College website.