College Bowl at nationals; debate hosts tourney

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by Sae Kim

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A college bowl team from Rice won the American College Bowl Federation Regional Tournament on March 2. The win qualified the team for the national competition in April.

Rice sent two teams of four each, the Grey team and the Blue team. Both teams did well, but the Grey team walked away with the championship trophy. Harry White was the captain of the Grey Team, which includes Joseph Abraham, Mikael Thompson and Randy Thomson.

"Mikael was amazing," White said. "He carried us through at least four of the matches. Without Mikael, there is no way the Rice team could have won."

The games consist of 20 toss-up questions and 20 bonus questions. Unlike most academic bowls in high school, there is no time limit.

Matt Kane, the captain of the College Bowl organization at Rice, explained the difference between this tournament and others.

"While some tournaments have questions of a more general, trivial pursuit-type knowledge, the ACF tournament deals with more esoteric questions concentrating in the history and literature fields," Kane said.

Now White's team has the chance to win the nationals on April 19-20 in Knoxville, Tenn.

"Our goal is to win nationals, not just to go," White said. "I think we have a good chance of winning."

Debate hosts nationals

Rice students are also representing the school in The National Parliamentary Debate Championship National Tournament March 23-25. This is the first year that Rice will have five teams participate, the most the university has ever had. Each team consists of two people who will participate in two-on-two debate. The five teams are Scott Ruthfield and Ryan Levy, Lauren McGarity and Kurtis McCathern, Nicholas Weller and Kevin Graham, Darien Lynx and Ravi Krishnan, and Travis Hopp and Jay Welch.

Ruthfield has participated in parliamentary-style debate since his freshman year. "This will be the largest parliament debate tournament ever. One hundred-twenty teams from over 30 colleges and universities will be present. There are more schools participating than ever before," Ruthfield said.

Parliamentary debate is modeled after the British House of Parliament. It emphasizes humor and analysis. Debaters receive their topics 15 minutes before debating.

McGarity feels that the tournament will run smoothly. She has also been active in debate since her freshman year.

"It's the tournament's first time ever at Rice," Ruthfield said. "Rice bid for it and won. This tournament is the culmination which all the schools' teams hone their skills for."

This item appeared in the News section of the March 22, 1996 issue.

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