Mason Debate has had an incredibly successful start to the Spring Semester!
Congratulations to Alysa Yalch and Ankita Bhurtel for winning the United States Naval Academy Debate Tournament, Mason Debate's spring semester opener. This marks the sixth tournament of the semester where Mason novices have reached finals.
Alysa is also the tenth Mason debate novice to join the finals club this year. We are very proud of our hardworking novices.
Beyond winning the Navy tournament, four of Mason's novices received speaking awards at the tournament. Congratulations to Sama Al Ani (2nd place), Jeffrey Fuchs (3rd place), Alysa Yalch (6th place), and Ankita Bhurtel (9th place).
At the Navy tournament, we also had a new novice, Enoch Chung, competing at his first ever debate tournament after joining the team in late November. Enoch and Sarah Alshuhayeb won 5 of their 6 preliminary debates, advancing to semifinals of the tournament. Not too bad for his first tournament! Congrats Enoch and Sarah!
Also congratulations to our Assistant Director, Dr. Jackie Poapst, for receiving the Naval Academy's Frank Harrison Novice Coach of the Year Award.
Following the Naval Academy tournament, our top varsity team, represented by seniors Ky Buckner and Noah Graham, was invited to the most prestigious tournament of the year, the Dartmouth Round Robin. Only the top seven duos of the country are selected. While there, they beat the second ranked team of the country, Northwestern University in their match up. This was only the second time in Mason's history that they have been selected for the Dartmouth tournament. The last time was in 1994.
This weekend, we attend the online University of Minnesota tournament.
