"We’ve had students in elimination rounds at several of the largest tournaments of the fall semester and there’s a lot to be proud of competitively," Watson said in an email.

The team began the semester being ranked in the Top 30s, eventually getting into the 16s and even a Top 10 finish.

During the Northwestern Season Opener and the JW Patterson Debates, the squad had three teams compete in elimination rounds. 

In the open division, equivalent to the varsity competition, of the JW Patterson Debates was economics senior Nate Glancy, James Madison freshman Tony Miklovis, political science sophomore David Koster and social relations and policy senior Piper Meloche.

Meloche is one of the two seniors on the team, who has reached the double octa-finals elimination debate round. 

“I think the season has been going great for the entire team,” Meloche said. 

Meloche, along with Miklovis, defeated teams from Wake Forest University, Missouri State University, West Georgia University and the University of Kentucky before falling to Emory University in the elimination debates. 

These wins don’t come without a lot of preparation though. The team researches general topics along with many of their subtopic areas.

In the second stage before the debate before the round starts the team has about 20 to 40 minutes where they know who they will be debating.

"So we spend those 20 to 40 minutes usually going over their previous debates and talking to people who we know have debated them in the past. Then we sort of cram study from the teams notes about points that they have brought up in the past,” computer science sophomore Mitchell Scott said.

The team can accredit a lot of its current success to being back in person, says Koster.

“Last year definitely impacted preparation a lot because we were all kind of isolated at home so there weren’t everyday team meetings or like you just see people in the office," Koster said. "Everything needed to be scheduled out. This year, it has been great to be back on campus and in the debate office because even though we are all masked up and debating online, we are all together as a unit.” 

Scott hopes that they can continue this start well into the fall semester and beyond.

“We have got a couple more tournaments left in the fall semester and a couple more in the spring semester, so it would be really nice to finish up the fall semester strong ... think about how it's gone over Christmas break, then make those adjustments.” 

They ranked in the Top 8 at the Wayne State University Tournament and they also reached the Sweet 16 at the Harvard Tournament and the Franklin R. Shirley Tournament hosted by Wake Forest University.

After closing out the first semester strong, the squad looks to carry that momentum into 2022.

"It’s not just about wins and losses though, our students have really represented a spirit of teamwork," Watson said in an email. "When one team is in elimination debates, the other students are helping however they can and that’s been really fun to be a part of."