International relations junior Eric Lanning, right, holds the 2009 University of Kentucky Henry Clay Debates first place trophy with head debate coach Will Repko, director of debate Greta Stahl and assistant coach Jeremy Hammond, standing from left to right.
After two days of defeating the nation’s top-ranked teams, a pair of MSU students claimed first place in the Henry Clay Debate tournament for the first time in 39 years.
The MSU team of political theory and constitutional democracy senior Carly Wunderlich and international relations junior Eric Lanning took home the first place trophy after defeating the University of California at Berkeley.
“They haven’t been together that long,” debate team head coach Will Repko said. “But to be that successful at our second tournament of the year says a lot about how well they work together.”
The tournament is annually hosted at the University of Kentucky during the first weekend of October.
Opponents the teams faced included teams from Wake Forest University, the University of Texas at Dallas, Northwestern University, Emory University and the University of California at Berkeley.
Although only one two-person team won first place, the rest of the MSU debate team performed well, Repko said.
“The rest of the team is younger, but they did well,” Repko said. “They aren’t in a position to win the tournament, but they are an important part of what we do.”
The tournament started with seven preliminary debates, Lanning said. From those seven debates, teams were ranked from one to 32, and the tournament proceeded like a regular-seeded debate, he said.
“We had five debates after that and won all of them,” Lanning said. “We beat teams ranked one to four in order.”
The debate was on the topic of nuclear weapons, a topic that is assigned for the whole year, Repko said.
“Lanning and Wunderlich’s primary argument was that Obama should declare that nuclear weapons will never be initially used,” Repko said. “And that the United States will never use nuclear weapons first.”
Lanning said Wunderlich was a dependable partner throughout the tournament.
“Carly is the hardest-working person,” Lanning said. “She does a ton of research and a lot of practice debates.”
Wunderlich and Lanning came out first from a field of 130 two-person teams. They have debated against many of the teams before, Wunderlich said.
“It felt good to win,” she said. “These are people we have been debating with since high school, so there was a pre-established rivalry.”
Before entering the tournament, the MSU Debate Team was ranked ninth in the country.
The new poll rankings of the teams will be available next Monday, Repko said.
“We’re in contention with the top teams in the nation,” he said. “I’m pretty sure we will be ranked top five.”
The debate team’s next tournament will be at Harvard University in two weeks.
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