January 23, 2013
Debate team continues tournament success
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Debate Team logged another tournament win against fierce competition at the Mile High Swing tournaments last week at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo.
A collegiate tournament weekend will often see two debate tournaments taking place on consecutive days. The Mile High Swing Debate Tournament, Jan. 18-19, featured more than 80 teams over two days of debating and two separate tournaments.
The duo of Mike Selck and Josh Rivera went undefeated in winning the second of two tournaments. Selck, a senior from Blue Springs, Mo., majoring in speech communication and Rivera, a sophomore from Chicago majoring in political science, have won five of the six tournaments they’ve entered this debate season. Selck and Rivera tied for third place in the first tournament at the Mile High Swing, and are now 21-1 on the season.
The duo of Ben Campbell, a senior from Springfield, Mo., majoring in political science, and Sid Rehg, a junior from Swansea majoring in speech communication, also finished well in the tournaments. They ended tied for fifth place in the first tournament, and finished as quarterfinalists in the second tournament.
Director of Debate Todd Graham noted that, after adding up all the individual debates during the weekend of tournaments, Selck and Rivera had a win-loss record of 21-1.
“These two tournaments are traditionally the most competitive tournaments of the semester,” said Todd Graham, director of debate.
The next tournament for SIU Carbondale is also the last one before the National Championship. That tournament, typically the largest of the debate season, is the Sunset Cliffs Classic at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif., set for Feb. 2-3.