September 26, 2013

Debate team opens season on a high note

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. – They are at it again!  The Southern Illinois University Carbondale Debate Team kicks off the season with a tournament series win.

Ben Campbell, a senior political science major from Springfield, and Josh Rivera, a junior political science major from Chicago, won both the Gina Lane Classic and the Georgia Bowman Invitational, a debate tournament series hosted by William Jewell College to open the collegiate debate season.  The tournament was Sept. 20-22.

Rivera is one half of the SIU Carbondale dual national champion team from last year. The William Jewell tournament is the first of the National Parliamentary Debate Association season.

Rivera and Campbell beat out approximately 60 other debate duos representing nearly 20 universities to clinch both tournaments.  Debate tournaments are often back-to-back events with a weekend of debates equaling two tournaments.

Campbell and Rivera also won the Jewell Award, presented to the to overall team at the combined tournaments.  Todd Graham, director of debate, said this is the third consecutive year SIU Carbondale claimed the Jewell Award.

This year, two newcomers joined the debate team.  Ariana Arnone, a freshman speech communications and political science dual major from Chicago, and Saxon Metzger, a freshman economics major from San Marcos, Calif., tied for fifth in the Gina Lane Classic.