Results 22-23

2022-23 Competitive Season

Summary: 2022-23 marked the first full year of normal operations for SDS after the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and significant changes to the structure of the team, including the departure of our longtime Director of Debate Rich Boltizar in 2022. SDS returned to in-person competition on both the British Parliamentary (BP) and American Parliamentary (APDA) circuits. SDS members traveled to both domestic and international locations and achieved significant competitive success.

Highlights:

• Arthur Lee ’22 (coterminal student) and Tejas Subramaniam ’25 won the US Universities Debating Championship and Hobart and William Smith Colleges Round Robin,the premier “tournament of champions” for BP debate, widely considered as the highest quality tournament of the year. This was the first time SDS has won the Round Robin since 2012; Tejas was also Best Speaker for both tournaments. 
• Tejas Subramaniam ’25 and Vivian Zhu ’23 were champions of Cornell IV, finalists at Oxford IV, semifinalists at the North American Universities Debating Championship (NAUDC), and quarterfinalists at WUDC in Madrid; Tejas was also best speaker at Cornell and Oxford, third best speaker at NAUDC, and ranked in the top ten speakers at WUDC. 
• Anshika Agarwal '25 and Rachel Wu '25 were novice finalists at the US Universities Debating Championship.
• Claire Beamer ’26 and Jennifer Lin ’26 won the Novice Finals at the Oxford IV.
• Sajid Farook ’24 and Tori Qiu ’23 won the Novice Finals at the APDA National Championships. 
• Amy Chang '25 and Ben Thomas '25 won the Novice Finals at Yale and Princeton APDA tournaments.
• Claire Beamer ’26 and Nadia Chung ’26 won the Novice Finals at the Chicago APDA tournament. 
• SDS successfully sent a 20 member contingent (7 teams and 6 judges), the largest delegation in the world, to the 2023 World University Debating Championships in Madrid. This was the first WUDC held in person since the pandemic. 
• Many more SDS members appeared in the final rounds of tournaments and took home speaker awards at nearly every tournament attended!