The university’s debate team took on their first tournament of the academic year at Slippery Rock, Pa., resulting in multiple accolades to be taken back home.
Vai Dennis and Rinee Singh both placed second in Novice Crossfire, with additional placements of second and third in overall speaker points.
Abraham Dixon placed fourth in Novice Rapid Fire and also earned fifth place in overall speaker points.
Josiah Rose placed fifth in Novice Rapid Fire and also earned fourth place in overall speaker points.
Natalie Barnes debated in Novice Rapid Fire and placed sixth in overall speaker points.
Not only did existing members of debate manage to have a great start of the year with their achievements, but first-timers also managed to obtain awards of their own as well.
Josiah Rose and Abraham Dixon, first-year political science majors, reflected on their first tournament with positive attitudes and said the entire process felt “very quick.” They also said the most memorable thing about the experience was placing in the “top five,” and getting some time to spend doing things they enjoyed as well.
“Besides performing well… we stayed up to like three in the morning, watching movies,” said Rose. “[It was] just a good time to hang out, and the car ride was a lot of fun.”
Rapid fires, which are what both Dixon and Rose participated in, typically work in six consecutive topics, each with 20-minute time frames. Within the time frame, debaters have to research the given topic and later debate against another person. Awards are then decided based on the performance during each topic.
Dixon listed out the topics he and Rose debated.
“We had ‘is modern Christianity a cult,’ ‘should we use weather changing technologies to fight climate change,’ ‘should we send military aid to Taiwan,’ ‘are the Kardashians role models,’ ‘man or bear’ and ‘are eSports a threat to professional sports?’” Dixon said.
Rose explained that getting the research was difficult and they were “scrambling for 20 minutes trying to find good resources.” He said it was an extremely stressful situation.
“And you know, the people you’re going against have done it before,” said Rose. “I mean we’re going up against people from Penn State, people from University of Dayton. We’re talking geniuses.”
Despite having difficulty during their debates, both boys had earned themselves their very first set of awards. They described the ordeal as “super unexpected.” On the way to the tournament, they said they were expecting to have a “losing record,” but their confidence built up as the tournament went on and they faced more people.
“We’d finish up and be like, ‘You know, I think I did really well that time,’” said Rose. “So it was a good first showing, but I hope we only get better from here.”
Dixon and Rose explained why they joined debate.
“I did mock trial in high school, and debates were the closest thing here [at Capital] that we had to mock trial,” said Dixon. “I want to be an attorney, so debate seems like a natural thing to work on.”
“I just decided to join it because I tried to start a debate team at my high school, and we never got enough people,” said Rose. “And I had also heard the Capital’s debate team was fairly successful, so I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds like it’d be fun.’”
Vai Dennis, president of the debate team and sophomore political science major, won second in Novice Crossfire, alongside Rinee Singh, another sophomore political science major and event planner for debate, and earned an additional second place in overall speaking.
Crossfire debate usually works as a value debate, meaning if the resolution of a topic is “good or bad.” Debaters have to “weigh in on which [resolution] is more impactful” in the long run, according to Dennis.
“The experience was… I would say it was a bit difficult, just because you do go through that summer slide when it comes to academics,” said Dennis. “That’s how I felt when it came to debate as well. I hadn’t debated in five months, I was wondering how things were going to turn up.”
Dennis said she hopes to become a better and more concise speaker and to make more sound arguments this school year. The expectation she had for the first tournament was to “place top 5,” which she successfully achieved.
“As for the team,” said Dennis, “I just want to have it grow and [for it] to continue to be a growing team and have more people go to every single tournament.”
Dennis had been part of the debate team for both semesters last year. She mentioned that she improved greatly since her first tournament as a first-year. She said Slippery Rock was also the location of her first tournament, creating a full-circle moment for her when she returned as a second-year and won awards.
“I felt good actually going up there when they called my name. I was like, ‘We did it.’ That was my only accomplishment,” Dennis said. “That’s all I wanted.”
Dennis said she had upcoming plans for debate, hoping to get more people involved with what debate has to offer. She strives to make plans alongside other organizations so more people can have a better outlook on debate.
“I want to branch out from it only being ‘debate’ because it’s really a public speaking skill,” said Dennis. “Public speaking is apparent in stand-up comedians, it’s apparent in people just tabling. Debate, or more like public speaking, is everywhere. Speech is everywhere.”
