Whitman College’s debate team bested over 250 schools from across the nation to place first in this year’s National Parliamentary Debate Association Season Sweepstakes, which took place from March 19-22 in Lubbock, Texas. As a result of the win, Whitman was the only team this debate season to advance to elimination rounds in all four national championships, marking the high point for one of the most successful debate teams in recent Whitman history.

“It’s been a great year. The students, they’ve really excelled . . . it’s been really exciting to see,” Jim Hanson, team adviser and professor of forensics, who noted that Whitman consistently ranks as one of the nation’s top parliamentary debate programs in the nation,

“We won the national championship in 2005, and we’re almost always in the top 10,” he said.

Hanson said that the string of victories is not only significant for the team’s winning-streak, but also because the team is so young.

“I do think it’s pretty significant. Not just winning, but we have a large, talented squad,” said Hanson. “Just one of them is graduating, and so they’re all back next year and we have good recruits coming in; I mean, we are, and we’re going to be, very good.”

Senior Policy Debater Daniel Straus has spent this debate season researching U.S. nuclear policy, specifically the implications of new Chinese weapon systems and how U.S. nuclear policy affects its deployment. He is impressed with the success the team has met as a whole this debate season.

“We were pretty successful throughout the year,” said Straus. “We were invited to the Kentucky Round Robin, to which only nine teams are invited . . . We were ranked fifth  in the nation.”

Team Coaches Aaron Hardy and Nick Robinson, both former student debaters who performed competitively at the national level, shared Hanson’s sentiment when asked about the team’s future.

“I’m really proud of the team’s effort,” Robinson said. “Every other team in the nation has reason to be scared.”