Despite the recent retirement of last year's national debate champions, Steven Sklaver '94 and Ara Lovitt '94, Dartmouth's debate teams won one tournament last weekend and finished second in another.
Bill Hinsdale '97 and Jacob Waldman '97 won first place at the George Mason University debate tournament, eliminating the College's other team of Lara Swensen '96 and Bryan Diederich '97 in the semi-finals.
Hinsdale finished eighth in the individual speaker competition.
At Dartmouth's annual round robin tournament, Marc Wilson '96 and John O'Shea '95 placed second to Emory University.
The tournament is the only one Dartmouth hosts and features the top seven teams in the country.
Dartmouth had a successful weekend without the help of its top two debaters.
Though Lovitt did not want to comment on the specific reasons for his retirement, he did say that "Steven and I have retired because we have accomplished everything from debate that we wanted to."
The last time the duo competed was in October when they won first place at a tournament at the University of Kentucky.
Despite Lovitt and Sklaver's retirements, assistant coach Bill Russell said Dartmouth still has one of the strongest teams in the country.
"Even given the loss of the country's best team, Dartmouth still has two teams that promise to be in the top 15," he said.
Dartmouth's debate teams have traditionally been among the best in the country. Each year, the team competes on a fixed topic.
This year's topic is: "Resolved: The Commander in Chief power of the President of the United States should be substantially curtailed."
The season traditionally starts in September and runs to April.
"Debating is a demanding activity that requires extensive research, sharp verbal skills and quick thinking in order to counter your opponent's argument," Hinsdale said.
The team meets every week to discuss the arguments presented by other college teams and to adopt a strategy to refute them.
Dartmouth's debaters spend more than twenty hours a week researching government documents and magazine and newspaper articles from around the globe, Hinsdale said.
Each competition has eight elimination rounds requiring the team to present arguments in both the affirmative and the negative.
