On January 6 and 7, 2012, Jesuit Debate sent two teams to compete in the Plano East debate tournament. The first team, made up of James Mantil ’12 and Ryan Tan ’13, came into the tournament with zero state points out of the 10 needed to qualify for the state tournament. The other team, consisting of James Ferrara ’14 and Justin Kang ’13, entered the tournament with only 2 state points.
After five preliminary debates, Ferrara and Kang went 3-2, barely missing the cutoff to advance to the elimination rounds. The team of Mantil and Tan powered their way through the early rounds, finishing preliminaries with a perfect 5-0 record. The Mantil-Tan tandem advanced to the quarterfinals, proceeding to win the next two debates against two different St. Mark’s teams to make it to the semifinals. Mantil and Tan didn’t stop there though, winning the finals of the tournament against St. Marks on a 2-1 decision.
This tournament win from Mantil and Tan earned the team 8 state points. With their win, the tandem has to simply advance to the quarterfinals in another tournament in order to gain the necessary 10 points to qualify for state. Tan confidently remarked about his hopes for the Coppell tournament this weekend, saying, “We are going to make it to the quarterfinals and get it done.”
Meanwhile, 600 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee, the team of Tanner Davis ’13 and Kevin Kim ’12 debated in the Montgomery Bell Academy debate tournament. After 6 preliminary rounds, Davis and Kim finished 2-4, a successful showing considering the immense of talent present at the tournament. Kim, already looking to the future, said after the debate, “We are now focused on getting ready to go to Emory.”
