The MSU debate team returned to East Lansing victorious after its first win of the year at the Kansas City Swing, a series of debates held at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and William Jewell College.

The back-to-back invitational debates lasted from Jan. 3 through Jan. 10 and involved nearly 100 teams from all over the country.

“It was a really good experience,” international relations junior Austin Carson said.

Carson and debate partner, social relations sophomore Calum Matheson, beat the University of Texas to win the tournament at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The win included victories over the University of Michigan and Wake Forest University.

Taking the trip was a good bonding experience for the team, Carson said.

“The team was very successful, and Kansas City is a pretty cool town,” Carson said.

No-preference freshman Greta Stahl and James Madison freshman David Strauss were semifinalists in both tournaments.

“I was really happy with the results, getting to the semifinals as freshmen,” Strauss said.

“In our first tournament, we made it to the semifinals, and in the second tournament we were 5-1 in the preliminaries but lost in the octofinals.”

Three members of the MSU team also placed among the top 10 speakers, with Carson finishing 8th, Matheson 7th and Stahl taking 6th place.

The 12-member MSU team won 3rd place in the Sweepstakes Award, which was based on points accumulated at both invitationals by all teams. Students were paired in twos for the debate series.

“We’ve had some very impressive results, especially with such a young team,” debate team Director Jason Trice said. “Ten of our 12 debaters are freshmen.”

The MSU debate team returned Tuesday night after competing in the West Georgia tournament, where Carson and Matheson once again beat high-ranking University of Texas in the preliminaries, but eventually lost to Iowa.

The team will go on to debate at Northwestern University on Feb. 1 in Evanston, Ill..