The Rutgers contingent celebrates the close of the year at the Bryn Mawr tournament, hosted by Swarthmore. Left to right: Arbi Llaveshi, Rachel Moon, Kyle Bomeisl, Storey Clayton, Sean Leonard, Alex Jubb, Gabi Cozzolino, Quinn Maingi, Chris Bergman, Henry Phipps, Jason Boyle, Denise Costanzo, Chris Baia, and Ilana Rice (from Columbia University, who debated with Chris Bergman).
The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) placed two teams in the top six at the Byrn Mawr tournament (hosted by Swarthmore), closing the year with the third overall ranking in the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA). Rutgers finished more than fifty points in the College of the Year (COTY) rankings ahead of 4th ranked Johns Hopkins University, 5th ranked Harvard University, and 6th ranked University of Chicago.
Here are the official results from Bryn Mawr 2013:
Chris Bergman & Ilana Rice [Columbia] – 3rd Team
Quinn Maingi & Alex Jubb – 6th Team
Denise Costanzo & Daniel Takash [Johns Hopkins] – 5th Novice Team
Sean Leonard – 4th Novice Speaker
With the speaker award, Sean Leonard clinched the 4th overall ranking in the Novice of the Year (NOTY) rankings as well. He joins Quinn Maingi (3rd in 2011-2012) and Ashley Novak (2nd in 2010-2011) as current RUDU members with top five NOTY finishes in their first year on APDA.
Meanwhile, Denise Costanzo broke to novice outrounds in her very first tournament of her APDA career. She and her partner finished 5th overall as a result of the top novice team advancing to varsity quarterfinals, opening up a spot for them in novice semifinals.
Rutgers was the only state school in the top ten of the rankings, with only three other state universities finishing in the top twenty-five. The others were #18 William & Mary, #20 Maryland, and #25 Albany. Rutgers finished ahead of all but one Ivy League school (#1 Yale), eclipsing #5 Harvard, #8 Brown, #9 Columbia, #10 Princeton, #21 Dartmouth, #22 Cornell, and unranked Penn.
Here are the final top twenty-five rankings of APDA for 2012-2013:
| Rank | College/University | Points |
| 1 | Yale University | 757 |
| 2 | Brandeis University | 487 |
| 3 | Rutgers University | 257 |
| 4 | Johns Hopkins University | 199 |
| 5 | Harvard University | 193.5 |
| 6 | University of Chicago | 187.75 |
| 7 | Swarthmore College | 171 |
| 8 | Brown University | 148.5 |
| 9 | Columbia University | 123.5 |
| 10 | Princeton University | 97 |
| 11 | George Washington University | 91 |
| 12 | Bates College | 88 |
| 13 | Smith College | 77.5 |
| 14 | New York University | 77 |
| 15 | American University | 75 |
| 15 | Syracuse University | 75 |
| 17 | Boston University | 58.5 |
| 18 | College of William and Mary | 33 |
| 19 | Stanford University | 30 |
| 20 | University of Maryland | 19.5 |
| 21 | Dartmouth College | 16 |
| 22 | Cornell University | 12 |
| 23 | Massachusettes Institute of Technology | 9 |
| 24 | Middlebury College | 2 |
| 25 | University at Albany | 1 |
The National Championships will be held at the University of Maryland this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Rutgers is sending a school-record five teams to Nationals, with seven individual debaters qualified. Senior Chris Bergman, juniors Ashley Novak, Adam Bomeisl, and Alex Jubb, sophomores Quinn Maingi and Russell Potter, and freshman Sean Leonard will be attending as qualified debaters. They will be joined by senior Nisha Kumar and juniors Gordon Morrisette and Deepta Janardhan in representing Rutgers at Nationals.
