This weekend, the Mason Debate Team competed at the American Debate Association National Championship. We had historic success.
In novice, Aiden Breneman-Pennas was the top speaker of the tournament. His partner, Tim Phillips won the American Debate Association's "Top Novice of the Year" award. This is the first time in that award's history that a black male debater won the novice of the year award. Aiden and Tim went on to win the entire tournament, beating James Madison, University of Miami, Liberty, and Wayne State along the way.
In JV, Tiff Imbimbo and Adit Singh won the entire tournament as well, beating Liberty University, Emory University, Michigan State, University of Minnesota, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Missouri State along the way. They were also awarded the 2nd place partnership award in the Front Royal Cup race, which aggregates year long success of a partnership to see who has performed the best throughout the season.
In Varsity, Ian Morris and Nick Loew reached the elite eight of the tournament. This is the deepest I can remember a freshman (Nick Loew) from our team reaching the final eight at the ADA Championship tournament. They also respectively received the 5th and 7th overall speakers in that division. We ended our race on a very close split decision to one of Dartmouth's top teams.
We sent 8 teams to the tournament in total. 5 of those teams advanced to elimination rounds, which was the largest ratio of advancing teams in the tournament across all participating schools.
Next, we will attend the Cross Examination Debate Tournament Junior Championship.
March 09, 2021
