Five worlds debaters (Lee Gensler, Armaan Alkazi, Connor Gadek, Shaya French, and Hanze Song) traveled with coach, Jennifer Rankin, to the US Universities Worlds Debate Championship at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon this past weekend (April 13-15, 2012). The team faced much tough competition as schools from all over the country sent their best and brightest to compete in this elite national tournament. Of the over 150 teams in attendance only 32 would advance to elimination rounds but…Bard was one of those teams!!! The sophomore team of Lee Gensler and Armaan Alkazi cleared as the 29th seed and debated a very exciting Octa-final round on the topic, “This house would remove all sanctions on Iran.” While they did not continue on to the Quarter-final round, their judges said the round was very good and very close! Thus Lee and Armaan ended the tournament tied for 17th place and in the top 20% in the nation. Congratulations to Lee and Armaan and the entire worlds team for a great tournament and year! Go Bard Debate!
