A young Samford University debate team is starting the season in high fashion. In their first competiton of the year, junior varsity debaters Kaitlin Defoor and Robert Walker brought home top honors from a tournament hosted by Georgia State University Sept. 17-20.
Defoor, a sophomore, and Walker, a freshman, defeated a University of Louisiana Lafayette team on a 3-0 decision in the final round. The pair earlier bested Vanderbilt University in a 3-0 decision in the semi-final round and University of South Florida-St. Petersburg in a 3-0 decision in the quarter final. They won five of six preliminary rounds to qualify for the final rounds.
“Although Samford has been to the finals in junior varsity in previous years,” said debate coach Abi Williams, “this is the first time in recent memory that we’ve had a team win the tournament.”
Both debaters were cited individually. Walker, a psychology major from Bonaire, Ga., was named second place over all speaker. Defoor, a political science major from Resaca, Ga., was named fifth place speaker.
Also in junior varsity completion, freshmen Garrett Vande Kamp and Matt Sessions, in their first-ever college debate, advanced to the quarter-final round before losing a close 2-1 decision to a University of Louisiana Lafayette team.
Samford varsity debaters Logan Gramzinski and Dan Bagwell finished preliminary rounds as the 22nd seed out of 170 competing teams. They were defeated in an elimination round by a top 25 team from the University of Georgia.