Fast Start for Trojan Debate

September 25, 2002 — The 122nd Trojan Debate Squad is well on their way to another successful season.

Only two weeks into the season, the Trojans have competed at three tournaments, earning high honors at each, including twice being recognized as the top overall speaker.

The Trojans opened the year at the Third Annual Las Vegas Round Robin, where Corey Turoff (Class of '03) and Erik Holland ('03) earned an undefeated record in the preliminary debates and finished as semi-finalists. Holland was recognized as the top overall speaker and Turoff was acknowledged as the 5th overall speaker.

Just a few days later the Trojans split up and competed at the Fresno State and Georgia State tournaments.

The news was good from Atlanta, as both Holland and Turoff and Marissa Silber ('04) and Daniel Wolnerman ('04) qualified for the elimination rounds out of a field over 100 teams. USC was one of only five schools to qualify multiple teams in the elimination rounds.

At Fresno, a number of the younger Trojans demonstrated that the future is bright. Five teams comprised entirely of the Classes of '05 and '06 combined to win 22 of their 30 preliminary debates, highlighted by an undefeated performance by Melinda McVay ('05) and Rebbeca Spector ('05).

The Trojans outstanding performance was recognized by a number of individual speaker awards: Mitch Tsai ('05) was 10th, Maggie Buckles ('06) was 8th, Bunny Tucker ('06) was 7th, Spector was 6th, Jeremy Keim ('05) was 5th, McVay was 2nd, and Sameer Asad ('05) was recognized as the top overall speaker.

The strong Fresno performance culminated in a sweep of the elimination rounds. Four Trojan teams, McVay & Spector, Keim & Will Stoughton ('06), Tucker & Buckles, and Danny Goldman ('06) and Kamil Chaudhary ('06), qualified for elimination rounds and proceed to not lose a single debate. When the tournament ended, McVay & Spector and Tucker & Buckles were recognized as co-champions, but the entire squad deserves accolades for such a dominating performance.

This coming weekend the Trojan Parliamentary Debate team opens their season at the Claremont tournament and next weekend the policy squad will travel to Lexington, Kentucky. To keep up with the Trojans, check out their brand new web site.

For more information, contact Gordon Stables, the Director of Debate at stables@usc.edu or 213-740-2759.