Monday, October 03, 2005

The Miami Round Robin

This past weekend, October 1-2, the Miami University Debate Team hosted the first Miami Round Robin, featuring seven outstanding high school teams, representing four states. The event was hosted at the Miami University Marcum Conference Center where all participants stayed and the debates were held.

On the opening night the teams gathered first for the opening assembly - here was the spread of certificate trophies to be given out at the tournament.
Also that night the participants socialized before heading to Uptown Oxford for some ice cream.
The "Way We Were" - St. John's Jesuit BR.
And then St. John's BRZ - Dave Zavac, Chris Barnett and Mike Richardson (MU, '09)
The Chattahoochee team of Stefan Jiang and Shasha Zou.
Justin Wilhelm, Chris, Dave and Eli Jacobs, still the night before the tournament.
A small argument broke out (among debaters, imagine that) between Alec Wright (Centerville) and Kyle Davis (MBA). The argument was something about who the best junior in the country is.
Dave modeling the Round Robin T-shirt.
Princeton debater Priya Parikh.
MBA's Kyle Davis.
The Ohio Coaching Mafia: Kristie Cramer (Central Catholic), Alan Bates (Princeton) and Marie Dzuris (Centerville).
Our official photographer, Michael Maffie.
Michael Richardson seemed to be an attractive target for hugs. From Bree Novak...
...from our own Kevin Wieck.
More Kevin...
The debaters received plenty of feedback from the judges. Here is Miami DOF Ben Voth giving advice to Alec.
Here MU professor and former college debate coach Jim Cherney and MU assistant coach Erika Thomas offer some tips to St. John's and Groves.
Here are judges Ilya Galperin (Miami Sophomore) and Mike Richardson (Miami First-Year).
And here is Eli Jacobs (Centerville) who, apparently having run out of room writing on his hand, had to resort to writing down judge comments on paper.
After the final round the participants gathered for the awards assembly.
The Third Speaker was Justin Wilhelm from Canton Central Catholic.
The Second Place Speaker was Alec Wright, from Centerville.
And, winning First Place Speaker by .5 points was junior Eli Jacobs from Centerville.
Participation Awards were given to the following teams:
Chattahoochee - Stefan Jiang and Shasha Zou.
Birmingham (Michigan) Groves High School - Kelly Goodman and Alex Pasqualini.
Princeton High School - Priya Parikh and Kavitha Subramanian.
And St. John's Jesuit - Chris Barnett and Dave Zavac.
Finishing in Third Place, winning 6 out of 12 ballots, was the team from Canton Central Catholic - Bree Novak and Justin Wilhelm.
Finishing in Second Place, with 8 out of 12 ballots was the team from Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville) - Kyle Davis and Jamie Berk.
And the First Place Team, winning all 12 of their 12 ballots, was the team from Centerville, Ohio - Eli Jacobs and Alec Wright.
After the awards, former MBA (and current Miami First Year) debater Kevin Wieck shows his love for his former squad's accomplishment, hugging the Second Place award.
After the teams had departed the Miami Debate Team dashed to The Smokin' Ox for a well-earned Survivor's Dinner.
We enjoyed hosting the Round Robin and congratulate all the participants!