Fulton Debate wins ADA Nationals

Ben Dewhurst,’21 and Nick Wong, ’20 won the Junior Varsity division of the American Debate Association’s national tournament held at the University of Texas-Dallas during March 10-12, 2018.

A partial list of schools competing in the tournament included Harvard, Northwestern, the University of Georgia, the University of Kansas, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and the United States Naval Academy.

During the preliminary rounds, Dewhurst & Wong were 4-2, defeating teams from Florida State, the University of Miami (Florida), George Mason, and Navy. Dewhurst & Wong entered the elimination rounds as the 6 th seed and received a bye into the quarter-finals.

In the quarter-finals, BC faced George Mason who won the coin flip and opted to debate on the negative. In a split decision, Dewhurst & Wong defeated George Mason and advanced to the semi-finals to debate against Liberty.

Dewhurst & Wong were locked negative against Liberty in the semi-finals because they had previously debated Liberty when BC was affirmative during the preliminary rounds. On the affirmative, Liberty advocated a plan to implement single payer health insurance. BC argued that single payer health insurance would devastate drug industry innovation. In a 3-0 decision, BC won the semi-finals.

In the final round, Dewhurst & Wong met the top seed from Liberty. BC won the coin flip and chose to debate on the negative. Liberty advocated a plan to provide catastrophic health insurance. BC tricked Liberty in the debate. In the second negative constructive, Dewhurst argued at length that Liberty’s plan was not topical because catastrophic plans do not provide basic health care services which are a necessary feature of national health insurance. Liberty feared it would lose on topicality so it misallocated its time and did not spend enough time answering the substantive arguments. In a fast 3-0 decision, the judges voted for BC.

As the champions of the JV division, Dewhurst & Wong will have their name engraved on the traveling trophy, which is a large silver cup named after the late Frank G. Harrison. Professor Harrison was the president of the ADA (2000-2004) and the Director of Debate at Trinity University in San Antonio (1998-2006).

At the awards banquet, Dewhurst & Wong were also recognized as the second best junior varsity team in the Front Royal Cup race, which awards points to teams based on their performance over the entire season prior to the ADA Nationals Tournament. A George Mason team that was defeated in the semi-finals by Liberty received first place honors in the Front Royal standings.