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The Rice Thresher
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by LIORA DANAN THRESHER STAFF Two pairs of debate team members, one of which included Baker College freshman Dan Henning, cleared the elimination rounds at the National Parliamentary Debate Association Championships in Omaha, Neb., last week. Henning died Monday night when the team was involved in an accident on the return trip to Houston. Henning and Lovett College freshman Randy Meissen had a 5-3 record after preliminary debates, achieving 58th-seed and advancing to the triple-octafinals. NPDA President Skip Rutledge said that Henning and Meissen's performance was outstanding. Rutledge said in order to join the 64 teams competing in the triple-octafinals, a pair needs to win at least five of the eight preliminary debates and earn a sufficient number of speaker points, based on the judges' rankings. "It's extremely rare for freshmen to advance to the elimination round," Rutledge said. Henning earned 28 points out of 30 in half of the preliminary rounds. "Dan had a terrific tournament," Rutledge said. "In his rounds, he was rated the top speaker four different times." Rutledge said Rice also did extremely well in the school awards, taking sixth place in the nation for the NPDA Year-Long Sweepstakes Award and 14th place in the overall tournament sweepstakes. "It's pretty amazing anytime you crack the top 10 there," Rutledge said of Rice's placement for the year-long award. George R. Brown Forensics Society coach Dan West said he was the proud of the team. "At the end of the tournament, every student was proud of their individual performances," West said. "We were happy with the way we were debating." 230 teams representing about 80 colleges and universities from around the country attended the tournament, hosted by Creighton University in Omaha, Rutledge said. Of the six teams Rice entered, Brown College seniors Scott Nilsen and Hiren Patel also advanced to the first elimination round after finishing 15th in the preliminaries. Both teams debated in the triple-octafinal round on the topic of "regulate the regulators," a subject Rutledge said was experimental. In their debate against a team from Concordia University, Henning and Meissen argued from the government's viewpoint, and Nilsen and Patel took the opposition against a Point Loma Nazarene University team. Both Rice teams were defeated, along with 30 other teams, in the first elimination round. University of California at Berkeley earned first place in the NPDA Year-Long Sweepstakes Award, while Truman State University took first in the Overall Tournament Sweepstakes. - back -
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