Thursday, Apr 6, 2006
WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Placing fifth in the CEDA National Championships is not a bad way to cap your college debate season.
Yet, for Whitman College debaters Eric Suni and Matt Schissler, finishing fifth was just a bit disappointing Monday morning in Dallas, Texas. Suni and Schissler settled for a fifth-place tie after losing a close 2-1 quarterfinal decision to a team from Harvard University.
Suni, a senior, and Schissler, a junior, turned in a strong performance against their Harvard opponents, and Whitman debate coach Jim Hanson had them pegged as winners and advancing to the semifinals. Two of three judges disagreed, however, and handed the decision to Harvard.
Suni and Schissler, who placed ninth at the CEDA championships last spring, made the quarterfinals this year by posting elimination-round victories over teams from Michigan State, University of Texas-Dallas and Gonzaga University.
Whitman was well represented as the tournament, which got underway last Friday, was whittled down from about 180 teams to 66 teams for the elimination rounds. All six Whitman teams advanced, which Hanson believes is a tournament record. “I think Emory University had six teams in the elimination rounds a few years ago, but they had entered more than six teams in the tournament that year.”
Whitman’s Jeff Buntin and Ben Meiches, who placed fifth in the tournament a year ago, came close to joining Suni and Schissler in the quarterfinals. Buntin, a senior, and Meiches, a junior, opened Sunday’s elimination rounds with a victory over a team from the University of Rochester and then advanced with an automatic win over another Whitman team, junior Ross Richendrfer and sophomore Andrew Stokes. Buntin and Meiches then lost to a team from Dartmouth College to finish in a tie for ninth place.
Richendrfer and Stokes won their first elimination round debate, knocking off a team from the University of Denver.
First-year Whitman debaters Candi Kissinger and Luke Sanford were among the last few teams to qualify for the elimination rounds, beating a team from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Kissinger and Sanford then lost to a duo from Harvard.
Two other Whitman teams also dropped from the competition in the first elimination round. Sophomore Eric Chalfant and freshman Jake Ginsbach lost to a team from Cal State-Fullerton, and the duo of junior Meghan Hughes and freshman Sam Allen fell to a team from George Washington University.
One Whitman duo has won the CEDA National Championship Tournament in its 21-year history. Whitman's Jessica Clarke and Adam Symonds were victorious in 1999, defeating a team from the State University of West Georgia in the finals. In 2003, Thad Blank and Charles Olney capped their senior seasons by placing second at the CEDA tournament, losing a close 5-4 decision in the finals to a team from New York University. In their two previous trips to the CEDA tournament, Blank and Olney had placed third and fifth.
Continuing a long and rich tradition in the rhetorical arts at Whitman, about four dozen students are competing this season in intercollegiate policy debate, parliamentary debate and individual events. Whitman held its first on-campus oratorical contest in 1894 and competed in its first intercollegiate speech and debate contests in 1897 and 1898. The Whitman debate program also sponsors the annual Dovell-Gose Oratory Contest, which began in 1918 and is open to all students, as well as the annual Intramural Debate and Drama Contest.
CONTACT: Dave Holden, Whitman News Service
509 527-5902; holden@whitman.edu
