The debate team placed third out of 140 teams from across the state at the 45th annual Owen L. Coon Memorial Debates Tournament at Northwestern University Feb. 7- 9.
International relations seniors Dave Strauss and Greta Stahl went 7-1 before being defeated in the semifinals.
Interdisciplinary humanities senior Aaron Hardy and biology senior Shaun VanHorn went 6-2 and made it to the Double Octo-finals.
International relations sophomore Ryan Burke and James Madison sophomore Andrea Reed went 5-3 but did not qualify for elimination rounds.
The teams of Strauss, Stahl and Hardy and VanHorn also were awarded two at-large bids to the National Debate Tournament, allowing the teams to skip the district qualifying tournament and go straight to nationals. The bids are given to the top 16 debate teams in the nation.
Debaters will be heading to the Freshman National on March 6-8, Cross Examination Debate Association National Championship on March 19-22 and the National Debate Tournament on April 2-5.
