Cornell Forensics Society

5th in the World — according to the International Debate Education Association.

US Universities Debate National Championships — Held April 13-15 at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Over 300 debaters competed in World’s Format debate, including teams from Ireland, the UK, and China. Adjudicators/judges included prestigious world finalist debaters.

Cornell sent 5 teams:
Alex Bores (ILR 13) / Ryan Yeh (A&S 13)
Kirat Singh (A&S 14) / Srinath Reddy (A&S 14)
Jesse Klinger (ILR 12) / Ratnika Prasad (CALS 14)
Christine Yu (ILR 14) / John Dillon (CALS 12)
Julius Kairey (A&S 15) / Maggie Heinichen (CALS 14)

4 Teams were seeded to be in the top 32 and advanced to the octofinals round
Alex Bores (ILR 13) / Ryan Yeh (A&S 13)
Kirat Singh (A&S 14) / Srinath Reddy (A&S 14)
Jesse Klinger (ILR 12) / Ratnika Prasad (CALS 14)
Christine Yu (ILR 14) / John Dillon (CALS 12)

Ultimately, Cornell had 3 Quarter-finalist teams:
Alex Bores (ILR 13) / Ryan Yeh (A&S 13)
Kirat Singh (A&S 14) / Srinath Reddy (A&S 14)
Christine Yu (ILR 14) / John Dillon (CALS 12)

Cornell had a Semi-Finalist team:
Jesse Klinger (ILR 12) / Ratnika Prasad (CALS 14)

Northeast Regional Championships –

Policy Debate:
*Varsity >> Congrats to Jason Wright & Lauren Cué qualified for the National Debate Tournament (NDT) in the 3rd position, which is a competition between the top 78 teams in the United States. Since the NDT was established in 1949, Cornell has qualified teams to the NDT 6 times; this marks the 7th
*Junior Varsity >> two freshmen (Dan Yoon & Laura Furman) won their octofinals round and met another Cornell team in the elimination rounds
“Domination of the Dans”: Dan Yoon was 6th speaker, Dan Lee was 3rd speaker, and Dan Powers was the 2nd speaker
Dan Lee/Dan Powers were 1st seed (5-1 record) and made it all the way to the finals
*Novice >> Michael Dong & Nicholas Rasch had a 5-1 record and made it to quarterfinals
Roberto Matos was 10th speaker, Nicholas Rasch was 7th speaker, and Michael Dong was 4th speaker

World’s Debate:
Thanks to CFS President Leah Salgado for filling in as coach for the weekend.
There were 5 teams that broke:
Alex Bores/Ryan Yeh broke as 1st seed (18 points) -> finalists, 2nd place overall
Kirat Singh/Srinath Reddy broke as 2nd seed (14 points) -> semifinals on a 3-2 decision
John Dillon/Christine Yu broke as 9th seed (12 points) -> quarterfinals
Nikki Prasad/Chris Leavitt broke as 11th seed (12 points) -> quarterfinals
James Stokley/Tony Chen broke as 15th seed (12 points) -> quarterfinals

Speaker awards: Kirat Singh was 6th speaker, Srinath Reddy was 3rd speaker, and tied for top speaker were Ryan Yeh/Alex Bores

Madison Cup — Jason Wright & Laura Furman finished 4th at the 2012 Madison Cup at James Madison University, winning $1000 for the Cornell Forensics Society and $2000 in scholarships.

For immediate release:

Cornell Qualifies for National Debate Tournament

Lauren Cue (A&S ’15) and Jason Wright (Eng ’12) qualified for the National Debate Tournament (NDT) in policy debate this past weekend at the Northeast Regional Championships held at Western Connecticut State University. To qualify, Cue and Wright had to defeat teams from Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, and other top teams. This will be the 4th year in a row that Cornell has qualified at least one team for the NDT. Prior to this, Cornell had only qualified three other teams dating back to the first NDT held in 1949. “This is a great win for the whole team, and represents the culmination of hard work all year long,” said Wright, who also qualified for the tournament last year.

Currently, the Cornell policy debate team is ranked 12th in the nation in the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) rankings.

Other Cornell students that did well at the tournament were Daniel Lee (A&S ’14) and Daniel Powers (ILR ’14) who made it to the finals of the junior varsity regional championships before falling to NYU, and Ryan Yeh (A&S ’13) and Alex Bores (ILR ’13) who made it to the finals of the world’s (British Parliamentary) style regional championships before falling to Hobart and William Smith.

Cornell’s world’s format team is ranked 5th internationally by the International Debate Education Association (IDEA).

For more information, contact Sam Nelson, Director of Forensics & Coach: (607) 255-2771 (office), (607) 279-2690 (cell), smn33@cornell.edu

Ryan Yeh ’13 and Alex Bores ’13 won the Hart House Invitational Debate Tournament this past weekend at the University of Toronto. They bested 63 other teams to capture the Cornell Forensics Society first tournament win of the season in British Parliamentary Debate.

The Hart House IV is an international tournament that regularly attracts teams ranging from Alaska to Oxford. This year’s competition featured 64 teams of two. A number of competitors have achieved substantial international success, including debaters that competed in the semifinals of last year’s world championship. This was the first year that Cornell has won the tournament

At the end of the five preliminary rounds, Alex and Ryan were ranked third, earning a bye to the semifinals. After successfully opposing the motion “This house believes that the United States should not veto a Palestinian bid for statehood,” Alex and Ryan became the only American team to advance to the finals.

In the final round, Alex and Ryan debated the motion “This house believes that hactivism is a morally legitimate form of protest.” In arguing against the motion, they stressed the undemocratic nature of hacking and the right of institutions to control their own information.

By winning the tournament, Alex and Ryan have qualified for the International Debate Round Robin at Hobart William Smith this upcoming April. However, the Cornell Forensics Society will next focus its attention on the Yale Invitational Debate Tournament this weekend, hoping to duplicate its success.