Pepperdine group claims No. 1 ranking after wins at tournaments at Santa Rosa and Fresno State.
By Jami Lambert
Staff Writer
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass would be very proud.
The Pepperdine debate team is making waves this year with its first number one ranking in the history of the University. After top finishes at the Fresno State and Santa Rosa debate tournaments, the team stands at the top of the Cross-Examination Debate Association’s National Rankings.
It is also the first time the team has been ranked among the top five debate teams in the nation.
“Our success so far this year can partially be attributed to the fact that we have a big team this year with 16 debaters,” Debate advisor Greg Achten said. “We’ve had as few as six in years past.”
“Last year we only graduated one debater,” he continued. “We had a lot of experience returning.”
Sophomore Dusty Farned, president of the debate team, also feels the returning experience is helpful.
“People that just joined the team last year worked on it this summer so they really took a step forward which gave us a big boost this year,” he said.
According to Farned, these 16 team members have put in a lot of hard work to get where they are.
“You spend as much as you want to put into it, depending on how good you want to be,” Farned explains. “Most of the work is done at the beginning of the year when you get the national topic.”
This year’s national topics up for debate are the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, the Kyoto protocol, the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court, the second optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and the treaty between United States and the Russian Federation on strategic offensive reductions.
After the topics are given, teams consisting of two debaters thoroughly research the subjects and must be prepared to argue both for and against them.
At a typical tournament, teams will compete in eight preliminary rounds at novice, junior varsity or varsity levels. Teams with winning records after the eight rounds advance to single-elimination break rounds.
In addition to the overall team ranking, the debate team has enjoyed much individual success.
The team of Kim Hyson and Cara Lynn are currently the number one novice debate duo in the nation.
Hyson said she is impressed with the level of dedication shown by many of the team members.
“We spend a lot of time doing debate,” she said. “It’s not one of those were-going-to-do-it-because-it-sounds-fun type of things. The people who succeed spend a lot of time doing this and they are very committed.”
At the Fresno State tournament, Hyson and Lynn remained undefeated to win first place honors in the novice division. Ravi Mehta and David Raimer placed third in the junior varsity division. Andrew Hoag and Catherine Quizon placed fifth and Brynn Olsen and Dusty Farned placed third in the varsity division after entering the break rounds undefeated.
Individual speaker awards were given as well. In the varsity division, Hoag placed eighth, Farned fourth, and Olsen third. In the junior varsity division, Mehta captured eighth and Ian Massy fifth. In novice, Lynn was second and Hyson placed first.
At the Santa Rosa Invitational, Hoag and Quizon placed first overall in the varsity division. In novice, Hyson and Lynn once again placed first.
For individual honors, Hoag placed fourth in varsity. In novice, Hyson was fourth and Lynn was third.
Hyson attributes much of the team’s success to excellent coaches.
“We have really great coaching,” she said. “(The coaches) spend so much time making sure that we understand exactly what is going on.”
Pepperdine competes with teams nationwide, but is included in a region containing the states of California, Arizona and Southern Nevada.
The Waves debate team will face two more tournaments this semester at California State University-Northridge and Wake Forest in North Carolina.
October 24, 2002