George Mason University hosted the JV/Novice National Championship on March 7-10. Two hundred debaters, coaches, and judges from across the country gathered at GMU to determine who the best junior varsity and novice debaters were for the 2013-2014 season. Mason debaters earned numerous individual speaker awards. In JV, Isaac Brown was ranked 19th, Colin Daily was 13th, Tod Mohney was seventh, Luke Melton was fourth and Michelle Thomas was ranked second. In Novice, Nouran Ghanem was ranked ninth speaker, Tyler Wiseman was sixth, Rich Kaye was second and Austin Oliver was first speaker. Besides individual attention, many teams also advanced to the elimination rounds. In JV, Michelle Thomas and Luke Melton made it to the double-octofinal round. Sean Hoey and Manraj Nijjar advanced to the octofinal round, thus placing among the top 16 JV teams in the country. Also in JV, Tod Mohney and Colin Daily made it to the semi-final round and ultimately earned a ranking among the top three JV debate teams in the nation. Finally, in JV, the team of Paula Kostuik and Isaac Brown made it to the final round and earned a spot as the second place team overall. In Novice, the team of Nouran Ghanem and Tyler Wiseman made it to the octofinal round, placing them among the top 16 novice teams in the country. The novice team of Rich Kaye and Austin Oliver was named national champion after pulling off a rare, perfect tournament in which they did not lose a single ballot and earned the top two speakers. The team has three tournaments left this year: ADA Nationals, CEDA Nationals and the National Debate Tournament.
March 15, 2014
