UM Debate

The University of Miami debate team has had a remarkable start to the spring semester. With the invitational tournament season winding down, the squad has been hard at work competing at the Monmouth University and University of Florida tournaments in back to back weekends. After all the hard work and long trips back and forth to the tournaments, the teams came home with numerous accolades including top speaker honors and an appearance in the national semifinals for policy debate.


Taking the trip up to the Jersey Shore, were three novice teams including three students who were competing at their first collegiate debate tournament. Leading the way for the Canes in policy debate, the team of Ali Jessani and Ryden Butler finished the tournament advancing to the quarterfinal round of competition and received awards for being the 4th and 7th best speakers at the tournament. The UM team had huge wins against teams from Cornell, Boston College, Navy, City University of New York and West Virginia University. The teams of Christian Benavides and Miranda Ratcliffe, along with the team of Miles Hendrix and Jose Miguel Rosillio also had a great outing finishing with three wins and three losses each.

Four days after returning from the Garden State, the Canes then loaded the van and took a trip up to The Swamp in Gainesville to compete in the DSR-TKA National tournament. With the same three teams competing, the U came away with decisive wins against district rivals the University of Florida, Florida State, and Vanderbilt. Having another breakthrough weekend, the team of Jessani and Butler finished as the second seed in the tournament with a five win, one loss record and again receiving top speaker honors. The team then won their quarterfinal round on a unanimous decision against Vanderbilt, before losing a close round in the semifinals. Also having a great weekend, senior Miranda Ratcliffe placed fourth in her first time competing in the event Impromptu speaking.

Lastly, the weekend in Gainesville came to a close with two of our graduating seniors being inducted into the national honor society Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha (DSR-TKA). Seniors Ava Fox-Rosellini and Robert Huph were both inducted into the honor society because of their continued commitment to the activity as competitors and ability to lead others as peer mentors.

The team next competes this weekend at the regional district tournament at the University of South Florida - St. Petersburg. As always, new members are always welcome on the debate team. If you are interested, please contact Professor Dave Steinberg at dave@miami.edu

Posted in: tournament