Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Julie Baker ’08 and Emily Tredeau ’06 won the University of Maryland Debate Tournament this weekend, beating teams from up and down the East Coast. Tredeau was the 2nd place varsity speaker at the tournament and Baker the 3rd place varsity speaker. The resolution for the final round was “In designing a liberal democracy, this house would criminalize hate speech.” Baker and Tredeau, facing Johns Hopkins, debated the negative and won on a 6-to-5 judges decision. They were undefeated for the tournament, going 8-0.
Swarthmore’s freshmen have made a deep impression on the circuit already this semester:
Ryan Jackson ’09 was the top speaker at Swarthmore’s Novice tournament, which drew over 100 first-year debaters from 15 colleges and universities. Alex List ’09 was 3rd place speaker and Miles Skorpen ’09 was 9th place speaker. Jamie Saxon ’09 was 15th place speaker. Congratulations!
Scott Brainard ’09 and a debater from the University of Maryland were 19th team at Harvard’s tournament out of 161 teams. He was also the 5th novice speaker at Harvard, out of 145, and at Haverford a few weeks previous he was the 2nd novice speaker out of about 30. Congratulations, Scott!
Finally, Miles Skorpen and Alex List were 5th novice team at Columbia, where 54 novices competed. Congratulations!
The varsity members of the Debate Society have also been extremely successful this semester, winning the following accolades:
At Haverford, Julie Baker and a debater from the University of Maryland were 6th varsity team; Emily Tredeau and Molly Piels ’08 were 7th varsity team; and Chris Ford ’07 and Garth Sheldon-Coulson ’07 were 8th varsity team. Ford was 5th varsity speaker and Sheldon-Coulson was 11th.
At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the following weekend, Baker and Piels were 6th varsity team. Baker was the top varsity speaker at the tournament.
Thanks to Garth Sheldon-Coulson for providing the results.
