Grove City College Debate Society

03/27/2017

On Saturday, GCC sent one team of four debaters (Micah Quigley, Zack Voell, Colin Freyvogel, and Chris Ostertag) to participate in an Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) hosted by Slippery Rock University.

This was a brand new experience for the team, and the format (as the name insinuates) consisted of principally philosophical topics. The debated case scenarios included moral limits on advertising, the ethicality of drone strikes, and the merits of trigger warnings. The team placed fourth overall (out of 18 total teams) with a total score of 284 out of 360 points.

03/23/2017

From Friday to Wednesday, the team closed the regular competition season at Grand Canyon University competing in NCCFI parliamentary national championship tournament.

In novice NPDA debate, Meghan Moran / Alisa Randall advanced to semifinals and Maverick Dickson / Noah Gould broke to finals but lost on a 2-1 decision. In junior varsity IPDA debate, Carolyn Hartwick advanced to semifinals. In varsity NPDA debate, Colin Freyvogel / Micah Quigley advanced to quarterfinals.

In novice NPDA individual speaker awards, Randall took second place, Dickson took fourth place, Gould took sixth place, and Moran took ninth place. In novice IPDA individual speaker awards, Chris Ostertag placed first. In junior varsity IPDA individual speaker awards, Hartwick also placed first. In varsity NPDA individual speaker awards, Isaac Kim took ninth place.

Overall, Grove City College took first place in the tournament sweepstakes, awarded to the school with the best cumulative performance.

02/28/2017

Many thanks to Dr. Todd Allen for talking to the team tonight. His lecture on why we argue, how to argue in contemporary culture, and differentiating argumentativeness and aggression was as direct as it was timely.

02/22/2017

Colin Freyvogel / Micah Quigley (GOV) practice with Josiah Vehrs / Zack Voell (OPP) debating the resolution: "Humans in developed countries should stop eating meat.

02/13/2017

Over the weekend (11-12 Feb), the team competed in a double-header tournament hosted by BGSU Falcon Forensics Speech and Debate at BGSU. Below are the results from each of the two one-day tournaments.

Day 1:

Carolyn Hartwick / Kyle Jorstad (4-0), Isaac Kim / Zack Voell (3-1), Meghan Moran / Alisa Randall (3-1), Calvin K***z / Chris Ostertag (2-2), Cassandra Burkett / Jessica Oyler (2-2), Andrew Furjanic / Rebecca Powell (1-3), and Nick Robison / Katie Steadman, of Ferris State University, (1-3) competed in open NPDA.

Hartwick / Jorstad advanced to semi-finals, but lost on a 2-1 decision.

No speaker awards were announced.

Day 2:

Kim / Voell (4-0), Moran / Randall (3-1), Hartwick / Jorstad (2-2), Furjanic / Powell (2-2), and Burkett / Oyler (1-3) competed in open NPDA.

Nick Robison (3-1), Calvin K***z (3-1), and Chris Ostertag (3-1) competed in open IPDA.

In NPDA, Kim / Voell and Moran / Randall advanced to semi-finals. Moran / Randall lost to Oberlin College on a 2-1 decision. Kim / Voell beat Oberlin College in the other semi-final round, but did not debate in finals due to a tabulation error that cancelled the final round due to the reported close-out by Oberlin College.

In IPDA, Nick Robison advanced to the final round, but lost on a 2-1 decision.

Grove City College placed first in the tournament's school sweepstakes awards.

02/06/2017

This weekend, the team traveled to Colorado Christian University to compete in an NPDA tournament hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. Kyle Jorstad / Zack Voell (5-0), Colin Freyvogel / Micah Quigley (4-1), Maverick Dickson / Chris Ostertag (4-1), Noah Gould / Alisa Randall (3-2), and Hannah Hastings / Carolyn Hartwick (1-4) competed.

Pictures and complete results are below.

Varsity NPDA:

Freyvogel / Quigley broke to quarterfinals, and Jorstad / Voell broke to finals, but lost on a 2-1 decision. Jorstad took third place individual speaking, and Voell took fourth place individual speaking.

Novice NPDA:

Dickson / Ostertag broke to finals winning on a 3-0 decision. Ostertag took tenth place individual speaking, and Randall took fifth place individual speaking.

Overall, Grove City won first place in team sweepstakes.

01/29/2017

Scrimmage with the Penn State Speech & Debate Society to prepare for spring semester tournaments.

01/29/2017

Many thanks to Allison Niebauer for hosting today's scrimmage with the Penn State Speech & Debate Society to prepare for the spring semester tournaments.

12/02/2016

Student Spotlight – Kyle Jorstad

Hometown: East Stroudsburg, PA
Major/Minor(s): Political Science; Spanish, Economics and Philosophy
Graduation: 2017
Other Activities: Law Society, Law Journal, Research Fellow-Center for Vision and Values

I debate because:
“Although it is important to be able to articulate one’s opinions precisely and concisely, debate hones something more significant altogether: the ability to confront opposing viewpoints as equals worthy of reception and discussion, and to reform one’s own opinions on the basis of sound arguments. Winning is great, but I debate because it helps me to justify the opinions I can defend, and to reconsider those I cannot.”

11/28/2016

Before officially leaving for Thanksgiving break, the debate team traveled to Bowling Green State University in Ohio for a double-header tournament weekend. Complete results and assorted team photos are below.

Kyle Jorstad / Zack Voell (3-1, 3-1), Maverick Dickson / Chris Ostertag (3-1, 2-2), Colin Freyvogel / Micah Quigley (2-2, 2-2), and Cassandra Burkett / Jessica Oyler (1-3, 2-2) competed in NPDA. Nick Robison (3-1, 2-2) and Andrew Furjanic (1-3, 3-1) competed in IPDA. Unlike most tournaments, neither BGSU tournament offered separate novice and varsity brackets. Instead, all debaters competed in the same open bracket. Speaker awards were also not given at these BGSU tournaments.

NPDA

On Day 1, Jorstad / Voell took first place after beating Hillsdale in semi-finals and again in finals as government with the resolution: “he UN should condemn Russia and the African nations for withdrawing from the International Criminal Court.” Dickson / Ostertag won the tournament’s Top NPDA Novice award.

On Day 2, the tournament broke straight to semi-finals, and no Grove City teams advanced. All had non-losing records and high speaks though.

IPDA

On Day 1, Robison took first place after winning the final round on negative with the resolution: "The Electoral College should be abolished.”

On Day 2, the tournament broke straight to finals, and no Grove City debaters advanced. All had non-losing records and high speaks though.

11/27/2016

On October 28 - 30, the team traveled to Marshall University for the fall semester’s penultimate tournament. Complete results are below.

Maverick Dickson / Graham Filby (4-0), Zach Wilson / Cassandra Burkett (2-2), Meghan Moran / Alisa Randall (2-2), Noah Gould / Timothy T. O'Brien (1-3), and Zack Voell / Carolyn Hartwick (1-3) competed in NPDA. Chris Ostertag (4-0), Colin Freyvogel (3-1), Nick Robison (3-1), and Kyle Jorstad (3-1) competed in IPDA. In addition to NPDA, Gould also competed in extemporaneous, impromptu, and prose.

Varsity NPDA

Despite not advancing to elimination rounds, Hartwick took tenth place and Voell took third place individual speaking awards.

Novice NPDA

Dickson / Filby advanced to finals and won on opposition with the resolution: “TUSFG should enter the no-fly zone over Syria.” All novices placed within the top twenty speakers for the tournament. Randall placed first, Dickson placed second, and Gould placed fourth.

Varsity IPDA

Freyvogel and Jorstad closed out varsity IPDA finals, and Robison placed third. Freyvogel took third place speaker, and Jorstad took second place.

Novice IPDA

As the highest seeded debater coming out of preliminary rounds, Ostertag broke straight to finals. He placed second overall and won first place speaker.

10/16/2016