The team poses victoriously outside of a Cracker Barrel in Albany, NY, following their triumph
Even though the Rutgers Debate Union wasn’t able to attend NorthAms in Ontario last week due to inclement weather, the successes of last weekend’s tournament at University at Albany, SUNY on January 29 and 30 certainly compensated for whatever feelings of regret or disappointment that our members were perhaps harboring. For the first time in Rutgers history, our debaters closed out the tournament: Top Varsity Team went to Pasha Temkin ’18 and Max Albert ’19, who are two novices and our current President and Vice President respectively. Second place went to Sean Leonard ’16 and Nick Hansen ’16, the former holders of the aforementioned offices. Our worthy competitors were from Swarthmore (beat four times!), Dartmouth, Brandeis, Yale (beat twice!), and many other universities. The Temkin-Albert feat is especially exceptional when considering that they, being a novice team, triumphed over actual varsity teams by attaining the title of Top Varsity Team, and are now tied for Fourth Top Team in the country! This is the first time in APDA (American Parliamentary Debate Association) history that a novice team has ever made the top ten for varsity. Rutgers has also risen to 6th College of the Year (still being the only public school in the top ten), following a lead ahead of Stanford, American, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins. More information on current rankings can be seen here.
Our complete rankings at University of Albany, SUNY:
- Top Varsity Team: Pasha Temkin* ’18 and Max Albert ’19*
- Second Varsity Team: Sean Leonard ’16 and Nick Hansen ’16
- Second Varsity Speaker: Pasha Temkin ’18*
- Third Varsity Speaker: Sean Leonard ’16
- Ninth Varsity Speaker: Max Albert ’19*
- Top Novice Team: Pasha Temkin ’18 and Max Albert ’19
- Top Novice Speaker: Max Albert ’19
- Second Novice Speaker: Pasha Temkin ’18
* signifies a novice getting a varsity award
Also debating at the tournament were Treasurer Larry Feltz ’17 and Jeremy “Jimmy” Kritz ’19, and PR Chair Andrea Vacchiano ’19 with David Vlnarov ’19. Judging with us was our new novice, David Blanco ’18. RUDU was also delightfully reunited with our former President, Quinn Maingi ’15, at the tournament.
This past weekend was an excellent way to wrap things up before we host our own tournament on February 5 and 6. We are looking forward to hosting an APDA meeting and will be expecting over 100 teams!
