Lenoir-Rhyne Inaugural Tournament Results
Belmont Abbey debaters attended Lenoir-Rhyne’s inaugural tournament February 19-20, and the team of Alexandrya Pouliot and Nicholas Otranto went undefeated through five preliminary rounds of debate, finally losing in the semifinal round on a 2-1 decision to a team from Cedarville University, representing a squad ranked fifteenth in the nation by NPDA. Pouliot also earned third place speaker honors.
The tournament featured over twenty teams representing five colleges and universities, among which were Cedarville University (#15), Morehouse College (#20), Appalachian State University (#32), all three squads are ranked among the top one-quarter of NPDA teams in the nation. The other Belmont teams of Gage Hillmann and Clare Woollen as well as Logan Torve and Mary Rose Stepnowski won two of five preliminary rounds, with each team losing their fifth round, the qualifying round for the elimination debates.
Next, the Belmont Abbey squad will compete at the International Public Debate Association
(IPDA) national tournament to be held in Baytown, Texas March 30-April 2.