The past two weekends have been very busy for the Chicago Debate Society (CDS), but not without rewards.
On the weekend of October 27-28, CDS competed against more than 100 teams at the Yale Inter-varsity Tournament. Third-years Ryan Naughton and Bridget Fahey placed 12th, and third-years Stephanie Bell and Reynold Strossen finished 16th, qualifying for quarter-finals.
Individually, Stephanie Bell was ranked 13th best speaker, and Bridget Fahey came in 17th.
The results are additionally impressive because the tournament used British parliamentary style, while CDS normally competes in tournaments that use American parliamentary style.
This past weekend, the debate team competed at the Brown University American Parliamentary Debate tournament.
First-years Ben Field and Adam Anderson placed into the octo-finals after winning four out of five of their preliminary rounds.
They finished 10th in the varsity division and first in the novice division. Individually, Anderson was ranked the first place novice speaker, and Field came in fourth.
Fahey, a third-year and CDS president, said the success of the novice team is unparalleled in U of C debate history.
“This is an absolutely exceptional accomplishment for Ben and Adam,” she said. “While I’m not familiar with the entire history of the Chicago Debate Society, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that a novice team has broken in the varsity division at their first tournament. This is also most certainly a rarity on the circuit at large.”
Third-year Woon Lee and second-year Galen Simmons were ranked the 15th varsity team.
This winter break, CDS will send three teams to compete in Vancouver at the World Debating Championships.