The debate teams of Senior Andrew Miller and Sophomore Tanner Davis along with Juniors James Mantil and Kevin Kim earned fifth place in Varsity at the Coppell Invitational debate tournament on January 7-8, 2011. In the Novice division, freshmen Jackson Pyke and Jeff Melsheimer took third place while sophomores Justin Kang and Ryan Tan took fifth place.
In the varsity division, both teams were 3-1 in the preliminary rounds and in the novice division, Pyke and Melsheimer finished preliminary debates with a perfect 4-0 record; Tan and Kang finished with a 2-2 record.
At the same time, in Nashville, Tennessee, the debate team of seniors Ryan Gorman and Sullivan McCormick earned third place honors at the Montgomery Bell Academy Tournament. The Montgomery Bell Tournament is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the country with the top 50 teams in the country competing. In addition to the team award, Ryan Gorman was recognized in the top twenty individual speakers out of the almost 100 competitors. The team received an actual bell as a prize for the tournament.
In the preliminary rounds, Gorman and McCormick finished with a 4-2 record earning the ninth seed with wins over teams from Illinois, Atlanta, Georgia, and Wisconsin. They defeated Lexington Massachusetts in the first elimination round and won the quarterfinals before losing in the semifinals for third place.
As a result of their finish, Gorman and McCormick earn their third qualifying leg to the Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky in May. The Montgomery Bell Academy is one of the oldest all boys school in the country. This is the best result at this tournament for a Jesuit team since 1984 when Jesuit won the tournament.
At the Lexington Massachusetts Tournament on January 14-15, the debate team of seniors Ryan Gorman and Sullivan McCormick earned third place, as almost one hundred teams from 20 states spanning the entire country competed in the three day MLK weekend event. In addition, the team of junior Kevin Kim and senior Andrew Miller earned 17th place honors and senior Ryan Gorman was recognized as the eighth overall individual speaker out of the almost 200 debaters that competed.
In the preliminary rounds, Gorman and McCormick earned the eighth seed with a 5-1 record with wins over teams from the University of Chicago Lab School, Eleanor Roosevelt School from the DC area, Metropolitan Academy from New York City and two teams from Bronx Science in New York. They defeated The Head Royce School from Oakland California in the second elimination round and Dexter Michigan in the quarterfinals before losing to Houston Kinkaid in the semifinals for third place. Kim and Miller earned the 25th seed with a 4-2 preliminary round record.
As a result of their semifinals finish, Gorman and McCormick become only the second team in Jesuit history to earn at least five qualifying legs for the Tournament of Champions to be held at the University of Kentucky in May. The only other team to earn more was Ryan Stevens and Sean O’Brien in 2006-2007.
Text provided by Dr. McFarland and Mr. Lingel
