The Bard Debate Union had another successful weekend at the Brad Smith Debate Tournament at the University of Rochester (Sept 30-Oct 2). With over 100 teams in attendance from college and universities throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, this tournament provided no easy competition. As the Bard Debate Union now participates in two formats of debate – policy and parliamentary debate – the team had students entered in both formats. For the policy debate team, this was their first tournament since 2009, but that did not stop the Bard students from achieving major success. Novice policy team of first years Anna Daniszewski and Max Taylor-Milner advanced to elimination rounds, won their octa-final round against Cornell on a 3-0 decision, and finished as tournament quarter-finalists, tied for 5th place at the tournament. They were the top seeded team of rookie novices (novices in their first tournament ever)! Varsity policy team of first year John Jeworski and Sophomore Ian Seyer achieved an impressive 4-1 record in preliminary rounds and reached the semi-final round, thus ending the tournament tied for 3rd place! Seyer was also named 4th place speaker at the tournament. While both Jeworski and Seyer were high school debaters, this tournament was the first college debate tournament for each of them! Student coach and junior, Michael (Lux) Luxemburg, also attended the tournament with the team and provided invaluable coaching assistance to the four policy debaters. Parliamentary debaters – sophomores John Graham and Patrick Jordan – had a very successful tournament, coming just points away from advancing to elimination rounds in the varsity division. And parliamentary debater and first year, Yelena Alashkevich, also attended the tournament with the team to learn more about debate by judging! All in all, it was a fabulous tournament for Bard Debate! If one walked down the halls of the University of Rochester this weekend, one could hear whispers among policy debaters and coaches saying “Bard is back.” They were certainly correct! GO BARD DEBATE!
