From April 11 to April 13, the DU Debate Team attended the 2015 U.S. Universities Debating Championships (USUDC) in Anchorage, Alaska.

“The DU Debate Team took five teams to the tournament, one student as a judge and both Megan Towles and Darrin Hicks traveled as coaches,” said Reese Wold, Communications Officer of the DU Debate Team in an email. “The teams were selected based off of their past competitive standing from tournaments [earlier] in the year.”

According to Wold, Towels, the DU Debate Team coach, was in charge of coming up with topics for this tournament.

Each team consisted of two students. This year’s teams included Cam Hickert and Tiffany Wilk, Austin Richards and Nicole Pancheri, Meredith Tolleson and Lauren Pauls, Jake Sunshine and Selene Figueroa and Maddy Ober and Jennifer Hsu. PJ Nyland attended as the student judge.

“Three DU teams were in the top fifty teams overall,” said Wold in the email. “Cam Hickert and Tiffany Wilk broke Octofinals, with thirty-two top teams.”

Hickert and Wilk were against teams like Yale, Stanford, Harvard and Brown and broke 21st overall, said Wold in the email.

“For me, it was a huge honor to compete in the same room with some of the best teams in the country, and in the world,” said Wilk. “We compete against some teams so frequently that we become good friends, and that makes the rounds even more fun because you can play and joke around with the other teams in the room.”

The DU Debate Team has also produced many fond experiences for many students according to Wilk.

“The debate team at DU has introduced me to my best friends of college, and has helped push me to do better, learn more and try my best,” said Wilk. “Also, I think the best thing debate has done for me is expand my knowledge of the world because we have to stay up to date on absolutely all current events and we get to debate about current social issues, which has helped me learn a ton about the world and helped me learn about my own viewpoints in the world.”

More information about the DU Debate Team can be found on their Facebook page.