Programming Notes

Given that this right here is ostensibly a regularly updated journal on the subject of debate, and since the season of fall is quite nearly upon us, I figured I might address some infrequently asked questions and other miscellanea.

1. This year, my primary coaching responsibilities at Rosemount will be with the experienced Lincoln Douglas debaters. I'm making the change primarily out of organizational need and the chance to spend more of my "debate time" in at least relative proximity to my wife, but I'm also excited at the prospect of trying something new. Plus, have you seen the goddamn topic? Feel free to characterize this move as "going to the dark side" or "coming to jesus" or whatever, but either way I'll probably think you're kind of a dork.

2. Towards the end of last year I was planning on writing something more "retrospectivey" and "wrap-uppy" about the MDTA Cup, but I'm a doofus and never got around to it. I would like to continue the tradition this year, most likely without substantial changes to the rules, but with some process improvements.

3. I'll probably be posting semi-frequently again as the debate season winds up. Expect fewer articles in the style of "Long-form How To" and "Long-Winded Polemic" and more in the style of "Something Else," the details of which haven't really clarified to me yet.

4. Read This Thing. I was planning on writing an article on just this subject, but I think this turned out much better than mine would have anyway. Tip of the hat to Aracelis Biel.

5. While you are at it, Read This Thing Too. A very engaging back-and-forth between Mark Oppenheimer, author of a memoir of his days in parliametary debate (and yes, it's that Mark Oppenheimer) and Michael Horowitz, 2000 NDT Champ and professor at Penn.

6. I'm working on a debate-related thing that may be of interest. More on that in a few weeks.

MDTA Cup Results

So the results of the MDTA Cup have been posted. Huge congrats to the winners, who are well deserving. Since I'm well aware the extent of our community's data addiction, I figured I'd offer some behind-the-scenes info on the cup.

A quick caveat: my data still has some errors (mostly transposed codes like EF -> FE). The winners in each event were double-checked, but please comment if you spot any inconsistencies.

First of all, the Final Top 10 (or so) in each division:

Policy Teams
1. Wayzata - Miranda Ehrlich and Meghna Sohoni (15)
2. Sibley - Danny Bernick and Anna Koelsch (13)
3. Bloomington - Devin Long and Tom Zimmer (12)
4. Bloomington - Ali Goodrum & Gracie Kroner (11)
4. Wayzata - Krishnan Ramanujan and Dru Svoboda (11)
6. Wayzata - Luke Plutowski and Johanni Thunstrom (8)
6. Wayzata - Alex Aronovich and Carlee Nelson (8)
6. Eagan - Annie Martin and Kyra Stephenson (8)
6. Sibley - Brian LaBounty & Tome Welle (8)
6. Wayzata - Mariah Donnelly & Devon Manley (8)

Policy Scools
1. Wayzata 46
2. Edina 32
3. Bloomington 30
4. Sibley 27
5. Eagan 26

LD Debaters
1. Coon Rapids - Robyn Sellman (26)
2. Robbinsdale Cooper - Chyenne Thibodo (18)
3. Apple Valley - Jon Slater (17)
4. Lakeville South - Dylan Slinger (15)
5. St. Louis Park - Catherine Tarsney (14)
5. Lakeville North - Jayant Tripathy (14)
7. Eagan - Kunal Patel (12)
8. BSM - Bennett Kenzie (11)
8. Forest Lake - Kyle McCleary (11)
10. Eagan - Michelle Wagner (10)

LD Schools
1. Coon Rapids 35
2. Apple Valley 28
2. Eagan 28
4. Lakeville North 27
5. Robbinsdale Cooper 24
5. Lakeville South 24
5. St. Louis Park 24

Public Forum Teams
1. Eagan - Rachel Markon & Iaan Reynolds (22)
2. Eagan - Haben Ghebregergish and Weronika Janczuk (14)
3. Eagan - Anne Beck & Matthew Burian (12)
3. Eastview - Bryan Larson & Anthony Stagner (12)
5. Lakeville North - Karen Zhou & Steven Elliot (10)
6. Eastview - Sneha Somani & Michelle McGuire (8)
7. Blake - Mike Graham & Mik Kaminski (7)
8. Eagan - Miles Norman and Emily Dallager (6)
8. Anoka - Sam Hughes & Lucia Martin (6)
8. Blake - Taylor Briggs & Sarah Carthen Watson (6)

Public Forum Schools
1. Eagan 42
2. Eastview 27
3. SPA 20
4. Forest Lake 19
5. Apple Valley 18

Classic Teams
1. MPA - Greta Stacy & Eric Baudry (9)
2. Eastview - C. Chang & L. Ramroop (7)
3. Eastview - Mark Besonen & Kristine Hiedeman (5)
3. Eastview - A. Balaji & P. Kelly (5)
4. Eastview - Raghav Julakanti & Paige Kelly (4)
4. Eastview - Katie Baldwin & Caitlin Moran (4)
4. MPA - Wood & Naravane (4)
4. Rochester Century - Taylor Williams & Courtney White (4)
4. South St. Paul - J. Nelson & B. Olson (4)
4. Southwest - Maddie Jacobs & Aswar Rahman (4)

Classic Schools
1. Eastview 18
2. MPA 14
3. Stillwater 10
4. South St. Paul 7
5. Rochester Century 6

Overall Schools
1. Eagan 96
2. Apple Valley 46
2. Wayzata 46
2. Eastview 46
2. Edina 46

Yep, that's right, a 4-way tie for 2nd place in the overall school race.



I'd also like to take a look at all the Champions and how they got there.

Policy Champs - Wayzata ES (Ehrlich and Sohoni)
Participant, Blake
4th Place, Bloomington
Champion, Concordia
8th Place, Highland Park
Quarterfinalist, Hopkins
Participant, Lakeville South
Quarterfinalist, U of M

LD Champ - Coon Rapids RS (Robyn Sellman)
Champion, Andover
Double-Octafinalist, Minneapple
Champion, Blaine
Participant, Blake
Champion, Coon Rapids
Finalist, Cooper
Top 8, Forest Lake
3rd Place, Lakeville South
State Participant (Made it to Semis actually, but qualifying is what got her another cup point)
Champion, U of M

PF Champs - Eagan MR (Maarkon and Reynolds)
Quarterfinalist, Minneapple
Finalist, Blake
Champion, Coon Rapids
Champion, Lakeville South
Champion, Man West II
Champion, U of M

Classic Champs - MPA BS (Baudry and Stacy)
2nd Place, Eastview
5th Place, Forest Lake
Champion, Roseville
3rd Place, St. Francis


Some other random superlatives worth mentioning:

Melissa Diamond is the only debater to earn points with 4 different partners (Balhs, Holder, Poteryakin, Mujir)

Maddie Johnson and Caitlin Moran from Eastview both earned points in 3 different events (Classic, LD, PF)

Depending on how you count, the Wayzata policy squad had 13 different students contribute toward their school award. This is despite the fact that only 2 teams can contribute points on any given weekend. Quite a collective accomplishment.

The Race for the MDTA Cup: Week 4/5

It's been two weeks and six Minnesota tournaments since the last MDTA Cup update, so plenty of motion in all events.

Policy Teams
1. Wayzata - Luke Plutowski and Johanni Thunstrom (8)
1. Wayzata - Mariah Donnelly & Devon Manley (8)
3. Bloomington - Ali Goodrum & Gracie Kroner (7)
3. Wayzata - Miranda Ehrlich and Meghna Sohoni (7)
5. Wayzata - Alex Aronovich and Carlee Nelson (6)
5. Bloomington - Devin Long and Tom Zimmer (6)
5. Sibley - Danny Bernick and Anna Koelsch (6)

LD Debaters
1. Coon Rapids - Robyn Sellman (17)
2. Apple Valley - Jon Slater (13)
3. Lakeville South - Dylan Slinger (11)
4. Lakeville North - Jayant Tripathy (10)
5. Eagan - Kunal Patel (9)

Public Forum Teams
1. Eagan - Rachel Markon & Iaan Reynolds (13)
2. Eagan - Haben Ghebregergish and Weronika Janczuk (11)
3. Eagan - Anne Beck & Matthew Burian (9)
4. Eastview - Bryan Larson & Anthony Stagner (7)
5. Eagan - Miles Norman and Emily Dallager (6)
5. Anoka - Sam Hughes & Lucia Martin (6)

Classic Teams
1. MPA - Greta Stacy & Eric Baudry (7)
2. Eastview - Mark Besonen & Kristine Hiedeman (5)
2. Eastview - C. Chang & L. Ramroop (5)
4. Eastview - Raghav Julakanti & Paige Kelly (4)
4. Eastview - Katie Baldwin & Caitlin Moran (4)
4. Rochester Century - Taylor Williams & Courtney White (4)

Policy Schools
1. Wayzata 28
2. Bloomington 18
3. Sibley 15
4. Eagan 14
4. Edina 14

LD Schools
1. Coon Rapids 24
2. Apple Valley 21
3. Lakeville South 18
4. Eagan 17
5. Lakeville North 16

PF Schools
1. Eagan 27
2. Eastview 14
3. Apple Valley 12
4. Lakeville South 12
5. Forest Lake 12

Classic Schools
1. Eastview 13
2. MPA 10
3. Stillwater 9
4. Rochester Century 6
5. Minnehaha 4
5. South St. Paul 4
5. Roseville 4

Overall Schools
1. Eagan 58
2. Apple Valley 33
3. Lakeville South 30
4. Wayzata 28
4. Coon Rapids 28

And more hard-hitting analysis
Debaters from Bloomington and Sibley are climbing up the policy scoreboard, which is still dominated by Wayzata despite some partner shake-ups and a trip to the Iowa Caucus. The W.E. Lillo is historically a turning point in the MN policy season, and it will be an important chance for teams to jump up the scoreboard. The policy race is still wide open.

Robyn Sellman from Coon Rapids has pulled forward in the LD race by grabbing the top honors at her last two tournaments, but the Minneapple offers a chance for big gains from multiple debaters, so she'll have to fight hard to keep the top slot. The LD schools race remains intensely competitive.

In PF, Brian and Anthony from Eastview have broken into the Wildcat wall at the top of the scoreboard. From what I can tell the two schools have not yet attended the same tournament, but if both are present at Apple Valley then it might be a turning point in the PF race.

The Classic cup race is still taking shape, but it looks like Greta and Eric from Mounds Park Academy are going to be the team to beat. If Eagan takes the overall schools cup (as they are currently well-positioned to do), Eastview would be in a position to take home both the Public Forum and Classic school awards, which I'm sure would look rather prestigious sitting next to each other.

Good luck at Lillo, the Minneapple, White Bear Lake, and Champlin Park.

The Race for the MDTA Cup: Week 3

Even though the entire community caught the flu this week, I still managed to get Week 3 calculated before Week 4 debates started. That's good, right! Here's the current standings for Policy, LD, and PF. Nothing new in classic since last week

Policy Teams
1. Wayzata - Luke Plutowski and Johanni Thunstrom (8)
2. Wayzata - Laura Holder & Shruti Satish (5)
2. Wayzata - Miranda Ehrlich and Meghna Sohoni (5)
2. Wayzata - Krishnan Ramanujan and Dru Svoboda (5)
3. Edina - Hannah Nelson & Erin Sielaff (4)
3. Eagan - Annie Martin and Kyra Stephenson (4)
3. Wayzata - Alex Bahls and Lina Li (4)
3. Wayzata - Mariah Donnelly & Devon Manley (4)

LD Debaters
1. Coon Rapids - Robyn Sellman (10)
2. Lakeville South - Dylan Slinger (8)
2. Apple Valley - Jon Slater (8)
3. BSM - Bennett Kenzie (5)
3. Robbinsdale Cooper - Chyenne Thibodo (5)
3. Coon Rapids - Chelsea Brown (5)

PF Teams
1. Eagan - Rachel Markon & Iaan Reynolds (6)
2. Eagan - Anne Beck & Matthew Burian (5)
2. Eagan - Weronika Janczuk & Haben Ghebregergish (5)
2. Eagan - Morgan Kuehn & David Wickard (5)
3. Eastview - Bryan Larson & Anthony Stagner (4)
3. Forest Lake - Nick Bergantine (4)
3. Lakeville South - Vanessa Johnston & Jacqueline Schmitt (4)

Policy Schools
1. Wayzata 18
2. Edina 10
3. Bloomington 9
4. Blake 8
4. Eagan 8

LD Schools
1. Coon Rapids 15
2. Lakeville South 13
3. Apple Valley 12
4. Eagan 8
5. Hopkins 8
6. BSM 8


PF Schools
1. Eagan 15
2. Eastview 9
2. Lakeville South 9
3. Apple Valley 8
3. SPA 8

Overall Schools
Eagan 30
Lakeville South 19
Blake 18
Apple Valley 18
Wayzata 18

And a little analysis
Wayzata Policy is having an excellent year. Currently they have 6 of the top 8 policy teams, and have built a substantial lead in the policy schools race. They'll be the team to beat this year.

LD remains intensely competitive on both the individual and team level. Expect it to remain that way over the next three weeks: the next two weekends have two tournaments each, followed by the Minneapple, so there will be lots of points in play.

Eagan is beginning to pull away in the overall school race, pushed ahead by a dominant PF squad and solid performances in policy and LD. They are well ahead in PF as well, although the race for the PF trophy looks very competitive if Eagan ends up winning the overall cup.

Good luck at Hopkins, Eastview, and Coon Rapids everyone.

The Race for the MDTA Cup: Week 2

Another scintillating week of Minnesota debate is in the books. This week's update features some lead changes, some tight races, and the introduction of Classic debate to the results (including last week's tournament at Roseville).

There are still a lot of ties, so keep in mind that my results processing does not currently implement any tiebreakers.

Policy Teams
1. Eagan - Annie Martin and Kyra Stephenson (4)
1. Wayzata - Mariah Donnelly & Devon Manley (4)
3. Wayzata - Krishnan Ramanujan and Dru Svoboda (3)
3. Blake - Jacob Derechin & Kentucky Morrow (3)
3. Wayzata - Luke Plutowski and Johanni Thunstrom (3)
3. Blake - Michael McGrath and Oliver Zosel (3)
3. Wayzata - Alex Aronovich and Carlee Nelson (3)
3. Wayzata - Miranda Ehrlich and Meghna Sohoni (3)
3. Wayzata - Oliver He and Faroz Mujir (3)

LD Debaters
1. Apple Valley - Jon Slater (5)
1. Coon Rapids - Robyn Sellman (5)
2. Coon Rapids - Chelsea Brown (4)
2. Lakeville South - Dylan Slinger (4)
3. Blake - Erik Legried (3)
3. St. Francis - Hannah Houle (3)
3. BSM - Bennett Kenzie (3)
3. Forest Lake - Kyle McCleary (3)
3. Lakeville North - Jayant Tripathy (3)
3. Lakeville South - Raffi Garnighian (3)
3. Robbinsdale Cooper - Chyenne Thibodo (3)

PF Teams
1. Eagan - Weronika Janczuk & Haben Ghebregergish (5)
2. Eastview - Bryan Larson & Anthony Stagner (4)
2. Forest Lake - Nick Bergantine (4)
3. Eagan - Rachel Markon & Iaan Reynolds (3)
3. Eastview - Maddie Johnson & Jason Vanderlinden (3)
3. SPA - Birk Mitau & Daniel Porter (3)
3. Anoka - Sam Hughes & Lucia Martin (3)
3. Apple Valley - Rhett Copaul & Comeron Michelsen (3)
3. Blake - Taylor Briggs & Sarah Carthen Watson (3)
3. Eagan - Anne Beck & Matthew Burian (3)
3. Eagan - Morgan Kuehn & David Wickard (3)
3. Forest Lake - Kristin Iverson & Laurel Pelton (3)
3. Lakeville South - Vanessa Johnston & Jacqueline Schmitt (3)

Classic Teams
1. MPA - Greta Stacy & Eric Baudry (5)
2. Eastview - Mark Besonen & Kristine Hiedeman (4)
3. Century - T. Williams & C. White (3)
3. Minnehaha - K. Koebele & R. Moen (3)
And a lot of teams with 2 points


Policy Schools
1. Wayzata 10
2. Blake 6
2. Eagan 6
3. Bloomington 5
4 .Edina 4
4. Rosemount 4
4. Sibley 4

LD Schools
1. Coon Rapids 9
2. Apple Valley 8
2. Lakeville South 8
3. BSM 6
4. Lakeville North 5
4. Eagan 5
4. St. Francis 5

PF Schools
1. Eagan 10
2. Eastview 9
3. SPA 8
4. Forest Lake 7
5. Lakeville South 6

Classic Schools
1. Eastview 8
2. Stillwater 7
3. MPA 6
4. Minnehaha 4
5. Rochester Century 4

Overall Schools
1. Eagan 21
2. Eastview 17
3. Blake 15
4. Lakeville South 14
5. Apple Valley 13

The U of M tournament next weekend is the first tournament with elimination rounds, so next week's update should include even more movement.

Introducing the MDTA Cup

Alright, I'm very excited to be making this post. The idea for a season-long, cumulative award for Minnesota debaters has been kicked around for quite a while now, and I'm very grateful to the MDTA executive board for letting me help them put this together.

The goal of the MDTA Cup is to encourage participation and reward success at Minnesota debate tournaments. Any MN debater who competes at four our more MN tournaments is eligible. The MDTA Executive board is working on procuring the actual award hardware, but I have been assured that it will be of the utmost quality and impressiveness.

DJ did a fine job of introducing the award here. What follows is a more in-depth description of the points system.

Point Getters

One Point for Participation.
Everyone who competes at a tournament gets a point.

One Point for "Placing"

This point goes either to the top 8 entries (defined by the tournament), or whoever clears to the first elim round, whichever is larger.

Examples:

• If a tournament has no elim rounds, the top 8 entries get a point


• If a tournament breaks to semis, all semifinalists and the next four seeds get a point


• If a tournament breaks to quarters, all quarterfinalists get a point


• If a tournament breaks to double-octafinals, all double-octafinalists get a point

One Point for each elimination round won

One Point for winning a tournament with no elims


Point Caps

• An entry can earn a maximum of 5 points in a given weekend


• A team can count the points of its top two entries per division per weekend to it's yearly total.


• In theory, a team could win as many as 40 points in a weekend (5 point cap * 2 students * 4 events), but I don't think the tournament schedule has any weekends where that is possible.

Examples

• Rosemount CS enters the BJ tournament, which has no elims, and places 3rd. He gets two points - the "participation" point and the "place" point - for that weekend


• Eagan CM enters the BJ tournament, and is named champion. He gets three points - the "participation" point, the "place" point, and the "champion" point.


• Cooper RB enters the Highland park tournament, which breaks to semis. He misses the break at 5th seed, but gets the "place" point for being in the top 8, so two points total.


• Rosemount RR enters the Sibley tournament, which breaks to quarterfinals. He wins the quarterfinal round, but loses in Semis to Wayzata GS. Wayzata GS goes on to win the tournament. Rosemount RR gets 3 points (participation, place, win an elim). Wayzata GS gets 5 points (participation, place, win quarters, win semis, win finals).


• Eagan PM enters the Blake tournament, and makes it all the way to the final round. He would earn 6 points (participation, place, win doubles, win octas, win quarters, win semis) but the weekly point cap is 5, so he gets 5 points

What I'm Going to do
I've agreed to tabulate the results for the MDTA cup and post weekly updates with current standings on this blog.

What I need from you
For tournament directors, I need to know the official results of your tournament, including (a) all participants, (b) top 8 entries in order if there are no elims or if you break any less than 8 students and (c) full elim results, if any.

For all coaches who do data entry, paying attention to consistency will help me a ton. That means a few things: (a) You need to make sure the long form of your school name is always spelled the same, IE "Blake" or "The Blake School," you need to pick one and stick with it. (b) The same goes for students' names. (c) In team events, I need consistent team codes, so please stick to the "alphabetical order" method - Quam and Johnson need to be listed as "Saint Paul Central JQ". (d) Also, if you need to add additional letters to a team's code, that code needs to stick with them, so if you have "Wayzata RS" and "Wayzata ReS", then "Wayzata ReS" needs to stay that way even if RS aren't at the next tournament.

I can fix the little mistakes that we will all make along the way, but please make the effort to proof-read your entry sheet. It will make my life a lot easier and ensure you get timely updates.

Oh, and one last thing, please be good to one another. This is the first time we've tried something like this, so there are sure to be kinks along the way. I'm sure we'll have to make changes to the formula over time, so remember that the first year is an experiment. And this is meant to be fun and friendly, so if you are getting worked up about the MDTA cup, then you are doing it wrong.