Members of the Seawolf Debate Team opened their season at the U.S. Universities Open last weekend hosted by Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA). Almost 50 teams from around the U.S.--including teams from Vermont, Texas, Washington and Oregon--entered the competition.

The Seawolves had an outstanding showing, advancing three teams to the semifinal round, two of which qualified into the final round and, finally, one that won the tournament outright. Read more.

After six preliminary rounds featuring debates about issues as far ranging as Net Neutrality and the role of private security contractors in military operations, the Seawolves entered the elimination rounds of the tournament with the first, second and fourth ranked teams. The teams of Drew Cason and Sarah Carpenter and James Kilcup and Michael Imeson faced off in one semifinal round, while Amie Stanley and Akis Gialopsis faced three tough teams in the other semifinal round. While all the teams argued valiantly over the motion “Voting rights in international financial institutions should not be determined by a nation’s monetary contribution,” Cason and Carpenter had to be satisfied with a semifinal finish that tied them for fifth place in the tournament.

UAA’s other two teams—who had entered the elimination rounds ranked first and second—squared off on different sides of the motion “The Organization of American States should sanction Honduras for the recent coup” in a final round that also featured competitors from the University of Vermont and the University of LaVerne (Los Angeles). After the dust settled, the team of Imeson and Kilcup were crowned the tournament champions and the Seawolves took top honors as a squad.

The next test for the Alaskan arguers comes with a 10-day tour of the East Coast, where UAA’s top teams will compete in tournaments at the University of Toronto and Yale University. For more information, please contact Steve Johnson in the Department of Communication and Discourse Studies at (907) 786-4391.