David Griffith and Austin Kiihnl received top 15 speaker awards.
In early January, the University of Kentucky Intercollegiate Debate Team attended a tournament at Georgetown University, competing alongside nearly 200 students from more than 30 universities.
The partnership of David Griffith and Austin Kiihnl defeated teams from Wake Forest University, Georgetown University, University of Minnesota and Emory University to reach the round of 16 before falling to the University of Michigan. Both Griffith and Kiihnl received top 15 speaker awards.
Partners Jordan Di and Ariel Gabay reached the round of 32, meaning that Kentucky has had at least two partnerships reach the elimination rounds at every tournament this season.
“I’m not surprised at all with our students’ success because of the effort they have been putting forth all season,” UK Debate Team Head Coach Devane Murphy said. “We’ve been talking a lot as a team about periods of development and taking the season one tournament at a time. I truly believe that we’ve only begun to see the tip of the iceberg of what we can accomplish.”
Later this month, Kentucky will travel to Indiana University to compete before focusing on the post-season.