Correction appended
Dartmouth's Mock Trial and Policy Debate teams have argued their way to the top this year, both performing well enough during their seasons to qualify for their respective national competitions this March.
Mock Trial started the year during Fall term at an invitational tournament at the University of Pennsylvania, which served as a pre-season to train new members. After the invitational, the teams were re-structured to include veteran teammates and then sent to regional tournaments. Two of these teams were sent to the Greater New England Regional Tournament at Roger Williams University and another two competed in the Atlantic Coast Regional Tournament at St. John's University.
According to Mock Trial captain Michael Sarinsky '07, these regional tournaments are the team's regular season.
"If you do well enough [at regionals], you make the playoffs," Sarinsky said.
Although Mock Trial acquitted itself well during the RWU tournament, their biggest success came at the St. John's tournament, where one of the teams finished with five wins, two losses and a tie, earning them a bid to Silver Nationals in St. Paul, Minnesota, Sarinsky said.
The qualifying team included Martie Kutscher '07, Nik Nartowicz '07, Brenna Jenny '09, Liz Kolleeny '08, Bill Lundin '09, Emily Fiocco '10, Jared Zelski '10 and Zak Moore '09, a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
Mock Trial national competitions are broken down into two categories, Gold and Silver. The Gold tournament is the actual championship tournament that decides the champion for the year. The top teams from each of the two Silver Nationals earn a bid to the Gold National.
This year, Mock Trial sent one team to Silver Nationals. Although the team did not earn a bid to Gold Nationals, they ended with a record of 4-3-1 and won eighth place in their division.
"The team performed admirably and well enough to make Dartmouth proud," Sarinsky said. "They truly represented the ideals of Dartmouth Mock Trial -- zealous representation, outstanding performance and impeccable sportsmanship. Basically, they worked hard and it showed. Their success follows a long line of Dartmouth Mock Trial successes, which, along with funding from the Council on Student Organizations, are the reason we're currently ranked 12th in the nation."
Dartmouth's Policy Debate team, unlike Mock Trial, is still in the midst of its national competition, which is also divided into two separate tournaments. The first, which took place from March 22 to 25 at the University of Oklahoma, is the Cross Examination Debate Association Nationals, an open competition that sees hundreds of competing teams each year. The second is the National Debate Tournament, a tournament competitors must qualify for through the CEDA. Dartmouth entered five teams in the CEDA this year.
Coach Kenneth Strange said that all five did fairly well. Kathryn Clark '07 and Kade Olsen '08 particularly stood out, finishing second overall, Strange said. The two won 13 matches until their loss in the finals to University of Oklahoma on Sunday night.
Team member Sisy Wang '10 said that other Dartmouth teams also did well, with three qualifications for the NDT.
Clark and Olsen, one of the top 16 teams in the nation, got a first-round bye to the NDT. The other two teams who qualified for the NDT are Josh Kernoff '08 and Caroline Harkins '09, and Shane Avidan '09 and Caroline Brandt '09.
All three teams will compete in the NDT this coming weekend in Dallas, Texas.
For the record: An article Tuesday ("College teams argue way to top grades at nationals," Mar. 27) incorrectly reported that the Parliamentary Debate team sent three pairs of students to the National Debate Tournament. In fact, it was the Policy Debate team.
