At the Creekview Debate Tournament on Saturday, December 10, 2011, Jesuit debate finished with one of their best all-around performances in years, with teams securing first, second, and third place for the Rangers.
The one-day Creekview tournament began with three preliminary debates. After these three debates, the team of Jeff Melsheimer ’14 and Grant VanKirk ’13 had a perfect record of 3-0 and held the number one seed going into the elimination rounds. Tanner Davis ’13 and Kevin Kim ’12 finished close behind with a 2-1 record, managing to advance as the 5th seed overall. Finally, the team of Jackson Pyke ’14 and James Abbott ’14 finished 2-1 as well, securing the 7th seed overall.
Only 8 teams advance to the elimination rounds, so it was a huge deal that three of them were from Jesuit. Melsheimer commented on his attitude heading into the quarterfinals debate, saying, “My partner and I knew that we had not had many chances quite like this one to enter the elimination rounds as number one. So, our mindset was to do whatever we could to win because we might not get another opportunity like this one.”
In the quarterfinals, the Melsheimer-VanKirk team debated the 8th seed, Davis-Kim debated the 4th seed, and Pyke-Abbott debated the 2nd seed. All three Jesuit teams defeated their respective opponents, with Melsheimer-VanKirk earning 2 out of the three votes in their round, Davis-Kim earning 3 out of 3, and Pyke-Abbott earning 3 out of 3.
With the three wins from Jesuit, the semifinals consisted of 3 Jesuit teams and a team from Coppell. But, the way the bracket worked out, Pyke-Abbott were matched up against Melsheimer-VanKirk on one side of the bracket. Because two teams from the same school are not allowed to debate each other, it defaults to the coaches’ decision to advance the team of their choice. Coaches Dan Lingel and Tracy McFarland stood by their standard of sending the higher ranked team in the tournament, so Melsheimer-VanKirk advanced to the finals and Pyke-Abbott were eliminated in the semifinals.
On the other side of the bracket, the team of Davis-Kim was matched up against the only non-Jesuit team left in the tournament. If Davis-Kim won their debate, then Jesuit would have two teams in the finals, and “close out” the tournament, winning first and second. But, if they were to lose, Melsheimer-VanKirk would debate the Coppell team in the finals.
So, the semifinals debate ensued, with Melsheimer, VanKirk, Pyke, and Abbott all watching and taking notes on the debate in case there would be a championship debate. Davis and Kim won the debate, though, on a 2-1 decision from the judges. The team co-championed the tournament with Melsheimer and VanKirk.
Aside from winning first, second, and third, all three teams earned the required 10 state points to qualify for the state tournament in the spring. Melsheimer-VanKirk earned 8 points, bringing their total to 12; Davis-Kim earned 6, bringing their total to 12 as well; and Pyke-Abbott earned 4, bringing their total to 10. As coach Dan Lingel remarked after the tournament, “This was truly the only scenario in which every team could earn the required points and qualify for the state tournament.”
But Jesuit’s achievements didn’t stop there.
Every debate, individual debaters are given a score between 20-30 on their clarity, speed, argument depth and creativity, and debate skill in general. The individuals with the highest “speaker points” receive recognition at the end of the tournament.
Incredibly, all 6 Jesuit debaters finished in the top 8 speakers out of 46 in the tournament. James Abbott won best speaker overall, followed by Jeff Melsheimer with the second best speaker overall. Close behind, Jackson Pyke finished in either 3rd or 4th. Finally, Tanner Davis, Kevin Kim, and Grant VanKirk all tied for 5th place speaker. Despite winning second speaker overall, Melsheimer commented, “Being the second best speaker was definitely a great accomplishment, but it really wasn’t that important to me. I was worried primarily about qualifying for state by winning the tourney. Individual awards are great and all, but WE needed to win, not me.”
This tournament knocked a heavy burden off the backs of 6 Jesuit debaters. The door is now open for these 3 teams to take trips to tournaments all across the country, enjoying better competition and experience. Kevin Kim remarked, “The challenge really starts next semester because we’re going to start traveling nationally to Montgomery Bell, Berkley, Lexington, and Emory and start competing on the national level.” The immense success of this tournament could clearly be seen as coach Dan Lingel carried a box of 8 shining trophies through the hallway of Creekview High School after the tournament.
