News

Debate victory for Swat duo

In print | October 9, 2008

This past weekend, Swarthmore hosted the 2008 Swat Novice Invitational. Seventy-four two-person teams competed from colleges and universities around the country, including Princeton University, Syracuse University, The College of William and Mary, Columbia University and New York University. Seven teams from Swarthmore were present. Two of these teams advanced past the “heat” rounds and one pair won the tournament.

Linnet Davis-Stermitz ’12 and Jessica Deutsch ’10 were the winning pair. Although Davis-Stermitz debated in high school for four years, Deutsch is a relative newcomer who began debating competitively just this year.

“A lot of novices try to impress each other by talking about how they debated in high school, so I was really surprised when we won. It’s just like any other tournament, where a lot depends on who you come up against at what time and a lot depends on luck. Even so, I’m really proud of the performance that Linnet and I put on this weekend,” Deutsch said.

Kyle Crawford ’12 and Kimberly St. Julian ’12 made it to the quarterfinals but were defeated by a team from Columbia that ultimately placed second. Crawford and St. Julian placed eighth overall.

Although they did not advance to the semifinals, Crawford was pleased with his team’s performance. “As novice debaters we are still learning the ropes on the APDA (American Parliamentary Debate) circuit. We both debated different styles in high school and learning this new style has been a challenging transition. Over the two days we debated in six rounds of competition,” Crawford said. “We faced a team from Columbia in our final preliminary round and then immediately after in the quarterfinals. Even though we lost, both rounds were both fought incredibly hard, but unfortunately some days you just don’t get the win.”

A round in the tournament consists of two teams debating a “case” proposed by the team representing “the government” which is opposed by the “opposition.” Cases included abolishing rent control in New York City and abolishing campaign finance reform. In the final round, Davis-Stermitz and Deutsch proposed to abolish closed groups on college campuses because they interfere with the promotion of diversity.

Davis-Stermitz said he was impressed with the competition and grateful for the support of the Swarthmore crew’s more experienced varsity members.

“There were a lot of really good judges from Columbia and William and Mary. Those schools train their members really well. I think that we benefitted a lot from the help of the varsity teams,” Davis-Stermitz said.

Crawford agreed with his teammate’s assessment. “The varsity debaters volunteered their time to work with all the novice debaters and only due to their work were Kim and I able to do as well as we did,” Crawford said.