The Lawrence Debate Union sent ten teams to Cornell last weekend and won a lot of debates, won Second in Sweepstakes (and the trophy is huge), finishing highly in all divisions, but failed to win first place in any of the divisions, coming oh so close to competitive dominance. One person who was alone at the top was Aaron Fishbone, senior and research director, who was named the Top Speaker in the varsity division. Aaron received a standing ovation from the assembled crowd of competitors indicating the appreciation they have for his debating and contribution to the debate community.
In the varsity division Aaron Fishbone and Shawn Wilkerson were 4-2 and finished Third, losing an elimination round debate to Rochester. Aaron was the Top Speaker and Shawn was tenth. Jillian Marty and Vilasa Campbell were 3-3, but both received speaker awards, with Vilasa ninth and Jillian fifth, especially impressive since they are junior varsity eligible.
In the junior varsity division Claudia Greenman and Edwin Owusu were 5-1 and top seed. Casey Gervais and Meredith Parmett were also 5-1. Sheila Limprevil and Abigail Trebilcock were 4-2. All three teams reached the quarterfinals and won their debates, advancing to the semifinals. In the semifinals Claudia and Edwin advanced over Casey and Meredith based on their slightly better record in preliminary debates, while Sheila and Abigail lost their semifinal to Binghamton. Binghamton then went on to defeat Claudia and Edwin in the finals. Thus, Sheila, Abigail, Casey, and Meredith finished Third in JV, Claudia and Edwin Second. In individual speaker awards Claudia was Second, Edwin Fourth, Abigail Sixth, and Casey Tenth.
In the novice division Brian Cole and Adam Gana were the only UVM team to reach the elimination rounds, but did so in style. After a 5-1 preliminary record, they win their octafinal debate and their quarterfinal debate before losing in the semifinals 2-1. Brian was the Third Speaker while Adam was Fifth. Other UVM teams had promising starts to their semester. Sky Ganer and Josh Grenier were 2-4, as were Jill Witney and Casey Massey. Jake Ricker and Julianne Hellmuth were 3-3. Special congratulations to Nikki Muradian and Carlos Varela where were 2-4 in Carlos' first debate tournament ever.
The team had a 35-25 prelim record and a 6-4 elim record for a total of 41-29.
Brian Cole and Nikki Muradian celebrated their birthday on Sunday.

|Birthdays for Brian Cole & Nikki Muradian |

THE NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKES RACE!

NDT sweepstakes can be found at http://www.whitman.edu/offices_departments/rhetoric/ndt/00zoverall.htm
CEDA sweepstakes can be found at http://esc.wichita.edu/ceda/ceda0102.htm