RUDU Closes Year with Senior Banquet

The iconic end-of-year shot for 2011-2012 with formal Banquet attendees. Left to right: Thomas O’Rourke, Quinn Maingi, Deepta Janardhan, Asher Wasserman, Henry Phipps, Corey Girard, Rachel Cusumano, Russell Potter, Adam Bomeisl, Kurt Falk, Ashley Novak, Storey Clayton, Daimler Vadlamuri, Amanda Gaetano, Chris Bergman, Stephen Yellin, Bhargavi Sriram, Dave Reiss, Alex Jubb, Nisha Kumar, Arbi Llaveshi, Jason Boyle, Shireen Hamza, and Cathy Guo.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) held its first annual Senior Banquet Tuesday night to honor those graduating from the club and celebrate a year of incredible growth and accomplishment.

The event, hosted by Novice Mentor Kurt Falk and held in one of the Brower Commons Dining Rooms, featured the semifinals and finals of the popular internal Ironman tournament, as well as speeches by graduating seniors, the President, and Coach. Falk also put together a gameshow called “RUDU Feud” to celebrate some quirkier aspects of the personalities assembled on the team.

The Ironman tournament was RUDU’s fifth annual since the inception of the tournament in spring 2008. The now established tradition pits most of Rutgers’ top debaters against each other in 1-on-1 half-rounds in a single elimination tournament. This year, sophomore Ashley Novak, the 4th seed, defeated alumnus David Reiss, the 2nd seed, in the final round. This tournament was the first to feature a bracket of 32 Rutgers debaters. Last year had 16 and all prior years had 8.

This growth in the Ironman tournament reflects the extensive growth of the club, which sent sixty-one (61) unique individuals to at least one APDA tournament this year. This makes RUDU one of the largest debate teams on the parliamentary circuit and poises the team, after losing only two seniors this year (Kyle Bomeisl and Amanda Gaetano), to contend for the top awards all next year.

Rutgers finished the season ranked ninth overall in the league, its second ever finish in the top ten of the prestigious College of the Year (COTY) rankings.

Here are the sixty-one members of the club who participated in intercollegiate competition this year or last and their status heading into 2012-2013:

Graduating Seniors
Kyle Bomeisl
Amanda Gaetano

Continuing Varsity
One Year of Eligibility
Chris Bergman
Bhargavi Sriram

Continuing Varsity
Two Years of Eligibility
Adam Bomeisl
Nisha Kumar
Arbi Llaveshi
Ashley Novak
Thomas O’Rourke
Stephen Yellin

Continuing Varsity
Three Years of Eligibility
Danial Manzoor
Alex Weiss
Isaac Woodward

Rising Varsity
Three Years of Eligibility
Jalal Ansari
Archie Babu
Jasmeet Bawa
Chris Beal
Jason Boyle
Antonio Cruz
Rachel Cusumano
Tina Dukandar
Kurt Falk
Corey Girard
Nick Guida
Shireen Hamza
Deepta Janardhan
Alex Jubb
Quinn Maingi
Rachel Moon
Gordon Morrisette
Henna Nain
Leland Perice
Henry Phipps
Russell Potter
Taaj Robinson
Aditya Singh
Ryan Tashima
Sarthi Tuli
Daimler Vadlamuri
Asher Wasserman
Maxwell Williams

Continuing Novices
Four Years of Eligibility
Samir Ahmed
Kevin Amaral
Elle Amofah
Daman Anand
Steli Cambilis
Jason Carter
Mohit Chopra
Tom Coghlan
Shelley Friedman
Alex Gristina
Cathy Guo
Chris Kaplan
Afsha Khan
Meet Patel
Siri Praturi
Shyam Sridhar
Joe Yi
Austin Zhuyan

Debaters have four years of eligibility to compete on the APDA circuit, but must attend at least three tournaments their first year to use that year of eligibility. Continuing novices attended only one or two tournaments.

The 2012-2013 season opens September 7th, 2012 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

RUDU Finishes 20th at Nationals, Closes Second-Best Year Ever

RUDU's Nats contingent gathers after Finals with awards won for the year and at Nationals. Left to right: Quinn Maingi, Adam Bomeisl, Alex Jubb, Kurt Falk, Kyle Bomeisl, Ashley Novak, Storey Clayton, Chris Bergman, David Reiss, and Arbi Llaveshi.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) closed the year with a solid performance at Nationals, with top team Chris Bergman & Ashley Novak finishing 20th and missing the elimination rounds by an astonishingly small margin of 0.375 speaker points. It was the second year for Bergman posting a 4-2 record but missing the break on speaks. His 8 wins at Nationals are the third most for any Rutgers debater in history. Kyle Bomeisl, debating with Quinn Maingi this year, leads all Rutgers debaters with 11 National Championship wins.

Here are the official Rutgers results from Nats 2012:
Chris Bergman & Ashley Novak – 20th Team
Quinn Maingi – 10th Novice Speaker

The novice speaker award was the latest accolade for Maingi, who also received his 3rd Novice of the Year (NOTY) award at Nationals, a cumulative annual award for first-year debaters. This is the second highest annual ranking of any kind for a Rutgers debater, trailing only Novak’s 2nd place in the same NOTY category last year. Kurt Falk also received his 10th NOTY award at Nationals, marking the first time Rutgers has placed two people in the top ten of any annual category. Rutgers overall finished 9th in the prestigious annual College of the Year (COTY) rankings, the second time RUDU has finished in the top ten. RUDU’s peak thus far was 5th last year.

Adam Bomeisl and Arbi Llaveshi were the third Rutgers team competing at Nationals this year, alongside Bergman/Novak and Kyle Bomeisl/Maingi. Adam was competing in his second Nationals as a sophomore; Llaveshi in his first. Falk and Alex Jubb attended as judges/observers.

Novak was also honored with an unofficial award at the annual Nationals Banquet, where graduating seniors bid farewell to the debate circuit. Kate Falkenstien of Yale passed down the “Miss APDA” award to Novak for best exemplifying what a woman of the debate league should represent. Citing her leadership, dedication, and commitment to fairness, Falkenstien expressed pride in sharing the award with Novak, who will be asked to choose a new recipient in her own senior speech in 2014.

RUDU is graduating just two seniors this year, Kyle Bomeisl, one of the most decorated debaters in Rutgers history, and Amanda Gaetano, a novice who joined debate just this semester. All other debaters are returning, as well as last year’s 11th NOTY (by half a point), Gordon Morrisette, who spent this season studying abroad at St. Andrew’s in Scotland.

A Senior Banquet, the first of its kind, to honor the graduates and commemorate the year, will be help on Tuesday, May 1st at 6:00 PM in Brower. You may contact Kurt Falk for tickets, which are $15 each.

RUDU Breaks at Last Tourney of Year, Finishes Season 9th; Maingi and Falk Top Ten NOTY

The RUDU contingent at GW2 poses for a dramatic shot to wrap up the regular season. Left to right: Jason Boyle, Nisha Kumar, Russell Potter, Amanda Gaetano, Kurt Falk, Alex Jubb, Adam Bomeisl, Henry Phipps, Bhargavi Sriram, Storey Clayton, Kyle Bomeisl, Rachel Cusumano, Chris Bergman, Dave Reiss, Quinn Maingi, and Deepta Janardhan. Not pictured: Arbi Llaveshi, Stephen Yellin, Thomas O'Rourke, and Isaac Woodward.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) finished the year with a strong performance at the second George Washington University tournament, with Kyle Bomeisl & Quinn Maingi breaking to quarterfinals and only losing to the 2nd-ranked team in the country all tournament. Maingi also took second novice speaker and secured third overall Novice of the Year (NOTY) with the strong showing.

Here are the GW2 results:
Kyle Bomeisl & Quinn Maingi – 8th Team
Alex Jubb & Henry Phipps – 7th Novice Team
Quinn Maingi – 2nd Novice Speaker

The tournament concluded with a showdown between APDA’s two top teams to decide Team of the Year (TOTY). The losing team, from Yale, was the only team to beat Bomeisl & Maingi, in both fifth round and quarterfinals. The quarterfinal was a very close 2-1 decision with Rutgers on Gov.

With the quarterfinal finish, RUDU finishes the year ranked 9th in the country, narrowly ahead of the University of Chicago and just behind the College of William and Mary. This is the second-highest finish in RUDU history, behind the fifth place finish last year. Rutgers first cracked the top twenty-five finishing 24th two years ago.

Kurt Falk also held on to a top ten finish in the NOTY standings, finishing tenth overall. This was the first year that RUDU had two people in the top ten, with Gordon Morrisette narrowly finishing eleventh last year and Ashley Novak finishing second. RUDU also finished with a school record-high eight people on the NOTY Board: Maingi, Falk, Alex Jubb (29th), Henry Phipps (42nd), Nick Guida (48th), Russell Potter (54th), Shireen Hamza (93rd), and Asher Wasserman (96th). Only Yale (10) had more novices on the Board.

Rutgers will be sending three teams to the National Championships this weekend at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Last year, RUDU broke to National octofinals for the first time in team history, with Dave Reiss & Kyle Bomeisl finishing 16th. Bomeisl will be joined by Chris Bergman, Novak, Maingi, Adam Bomeisl, and Arbi Llaveshi at this year’s Nationals. Bergman and Novak were one of only eleven partnerships across the league this year to break to quarterfinals five times or more.

The final top twenty-five colleges on APDA for 2011-2012 are as follows:

Rank	College/University	Points
1	Yale University	930.5
2	Columbia University	300.75
3	Brandeis University	275.25
4	Harvard University	245.5
5	Johns Hopkins University	204.75
6	American University	168
7	Bates College	155.25
8	College of William and Mary	129
9	RUTGERS UNIVERSITY	124
10	University of Chicago	122
11	Dartmouth College	101
12	Brown University	85.5
13	Swarthmore College	82.5
14	Princeton University	50.5
14	Loyola Marymount University	50.5
16	Syracuse University	46
17	Tufts University	44
18	George Washington University	33
19	Northeastern University	22
20	University of Virginia	18
21	Fordham University	16
22	Boston University	15
23	Cornell University	12
24	Smith College	9
25	Amherst College	8

Candidate Statements for 2013 Tournament Director

Four (4) candidates are running for Tournament Director for the 2013 Rutgers Invitational: Adam Bomeisl, Rachel Cusumano, Deepta Janardhan, and Daimler Vadlamuri.  Their candidate statements are below.  The vote will take place on Tuesday, April 24th, at 9:00 PM in Murray 210.  All members who have attended at least ten (10) meetings will have a vote and are encouraged to attend.

Adam Bomeisl
Hi, this is Adam Bomeisl your current co-tournament director along with Bhargavi Sriram. This year I will be running by myself for tournament director (dropping the co, moving up in the world, but seriously). I love our tournament, it’s one of my favorite parts about debate, and running it, although pretty stressful, was also really enjoyable. Our last tournament, The Rutgers 2012 Invitational: Go the Fuck to Sleep, was a resounding success. We ran largely on time (especially when compared with other unopposed, 20 point tournaments) and we had a great judging pool made up of all of you guys (thanks again for giving up your weekend, we couldn’t have done it without you!) and many dinos from across the APDA nation. I had many people from a variety of schools (such as Brandies and GW to name a few) come up to me and say our tournament was awesome. A great way to get a repeat performance of this would be to re-elect me, the A-bomb, as tournament director. I have experience running a gigantic tournament and because of this I know what preparations need to be done and when. For the last tournament I was very responsible. I booked rooms as early as possible (I put in the request before W+M I on September 16th) and ordered trophies weeks in advance. I even went so far as to contact our administrative representative early on so as to give her a heads up about our tournament on September 15th and that we would need to coordinate with the administration on logistics of the tournament. Of course there were a few mistakes made, but nobody is perfect and I hope you all won’t blame me for not being omnipotent and omniscient (hell even in debate cases actors only get a choice of one or the other). Also I have learned from these mistakes and know how to prevent them in the future. Running a tournament is a lot of work and takes a lot of preparation, but if one delegates responsibility well and manages one’s time properly it can get done. Seeing as how I successfully did that this year, I see no reason why I can’t again. And thanks again to all who helped out with the tournament this year; whether you were a runner, judge, tabstaffer, e-board member who was delegated responsibilities involving the tournament, and/or anyone else I may have forgotten. Let’s you and me run another awesome tournament this year.

Rachel Cusumano
Looking back on this past year’s tournament I am eager to be involved again in the coming year. The tournament was a great success but I think even more can be done to improve the quality of the event. I am running for this position because I would like to put my ideas to use and make the tournament run even better than in previous years.

For a tournament to run smoothly there must be an adequate amount of thoughtful and detailed planning. Whereas many decisions are made months prior to the event, the tournament director in charge of this planning must be able to think of every little detail in the long term. I am able to look at the big picture and the smallest details to think out the most effective plans. More importantly, I have the work ethic and responsibility to actually carry out these plans. As seen at this past tournament I not only lived up to my responsibilities as a runner but I went far beyond. Throughout the tournament I eagerly volunteered to help at any needed moment such as offering up my car to transport materials or arriving early to clean up GA. As a tournament director I can definitely use my eager work ethic to carry out essential plans needed for the tournament.

Even with the most well thought out plans, events don’t always occur as planned. Surprises in plans are to be expected, what’s most important is how one responds to these changes. A major problem of this past year’s tournament was the stressed demeanor many had in response to disruptions in set plans. Too often one would see something wrong and instead of approaching the situation in a rational way they would become stressed and act in an emotional manner. Unfortunately this course of action not only prevented the actual problem from being dealt with in a timely manner but it caused others on the team to react negatively to said occurrences as well. I think the majority of disruptions can be minimized with effective planning, but even if said disruptions are to occur the best way to attack them is with a calm and rational demeanor. I’m known by many on the team to smile even in the face of a tough situation. This is a very important quality to have, especially while dealing with the stressful responsibilities that come with planning a tournament. I am able to approach tough situations rationally and think proper solutions. I am flexible and resourceful, both of which are important in carrying out solutions to spur of the moment problems. The fact that I can uphold a calm demeanor while effectively solving problems ultimately creates a better atmosphere and a more enjoyable tournament all around.

I believe communication is another crucial component in running an effective tournament. Tasks are more likely to be accomplished when people are working with each other rather than against each other. A big problem of this past year’s tournament was the miscommunication that occurred within the team. People often expected others to complete various tasks rather than taking the initiative to do so upon themselves. I believe I can change this and create positive communication amongst the team. This past year I was often seen as a cheerleader, not only did I approach tasks with a positive mind, but I also provided encouragement to many people on the team. I believe this encouragement can be used to motivate more people on the team to help out with the tasks needed for the tournament. This will ultimately create a smoother tournament and a more enjoyable atmosphere for everyone involved.

I’m sure we’re all looking forward to a great tournament next year. At the end of the day I believe I have the qualities needed to run a strong tournament. I have some great ideas and I am very eager to put them to use. Thank you for your support, I am looking forward to a very successful tournament next year.

Deepta Janardhan
Hey, RUDU.

Recently, the APDA Board recently released its Spring 2013 tournament schedule. Under this plan, Rutgers would no longer have an unopposed tournament weekend. While this really does have very little to do with the way the tournament was actually run, and discussion on this topic is far from closed, one thing is clear. The RU 2013 Tournament will face a lot of scrutiny, and the way that we run it will definitely have a great effect on the way that the circuit views the Rutgers team. Given these pressures, I feel that I am an ideal candidate for the position of next year’s Tournament Director. A few questions should be paramount in your mind when you write a name on the ballot.

What kind of experience does a TD need?

Ideally, I think that the role of TD should shift from year to year, to a rising sophomore or junior. This way, for any given year, we always have plenty of people on the team who have the experience to help deal with problems that may arise. Remember that running a successful tournament always requires a combined team effort, even while the TD is the leader of this.

I have the sort of experience required to take on this leadership role. In my freshman year, I participated in helping run the Rutgers Model Congress (this was before I found out about RUDU, I swear), which had about 40 high schools in attendance. Part of my job was to confer with the heads of each committee, ensure that they had executed the goals that they had set for themselves, and provide them with help to get them on track.

This semester, besides debate and schoolwork, I have concurrently been involved in an Aresty Research project and an internship. I know what it’s like to have to plan meetings with people with tight schedules, from my work with professors at Rutgers and the assignment judge at Middlesex Courthouse. As TD, I would clear my schedule more to concentrate on the tournament. However, this does show that I can handle multiple projects successfully. I am therefore confident in my ability to manage the many responsibilities needed to run a tournament.

How is a tournament supposed to run?

First, it’s essential that everything runs on time. Tab notwithstanding, the other factors of this are streamlining the registration process, ensuring that everyone keeps up their housing commitments, and ordering food from a reliable source.

Additionally, the TD must ensure that people at each level of the planning process understand where their responsibilities fit into the scheme of things. This means that specific tasks should be delegated early on so that different people are picking up on errors in a pinch.

If a problem does arise, it’s important for the TD to immediately accept responsibility and take actions to first, prioritize the issue, and then attempt to fix it accordingly.

In the end, the TD is mostly responsible for the final outcome of the tournament, and must be proactive in determining this, even if that means having to deal with some friction in the short run.

What’s the link between the TD and RUDU in general?

For having joined mid-semester in my sophomore year, I have actively attempted to take on more responsibility in RUDU. This semester, I have debated in 9 out of the 12 tournaments that I was allowed to attend. I was a runner at the Rutgers tournament this year, and became certified to drive the large vans. (Even if I just barely passed the test, it still counts.)

If I were not elected to be TD, I would still be more than willing to help in any way I can to make the tournament a success, and of course, I will continue to extend my efforts to support the team in other ways. Additionally, I have tried to reach out to as many people on this team as possible. I have given and received advice as well as constructive criticism, in the context of not only debate, but everyday life. I do stick firmly to my views, but I also have a good sense of when I should concede them.

I feel that ultimately, I have a good combination of the discipline and open-mindedness needed to run what should be one of the best tournaments of the year. With regards to the latter, I welcome any suggestions via Facebook message or email at deeptaj@eden.rutgers.edu.

Daimler Vadlamuri
I’m a member of RUDU. I go by Daimler, though members of RUDU do refer to me by a few other affectionate names which I have no idea where they come up with. So I want to run for TD. As TD the only plans I have are about how I’d run the tournament regarding food. I love food. I have our menu planned out. Its pretty awesome. Vote for me if you want to find out the menu. Hint: Its ethnic food. Did I say it’d be awesome. Oh P.S there is a slim possibility I might not be here next year, just fyi. Thanks!

RUDU Debates Rutgers-Newark on Covering Identity for Project Civility

The Rutgers-New Brunswick contingent at last night's Civility Debate, including two RUDU members and two faculty. Left to right: Jenny Kurtz, Bhargavi Sriram, Quinn Maingi, and Mark Schuster. Photo courtesy of The Daily Targum.

Last night, the closing Project Civility debate was held in the Student Activities Center (SAC) between a contingent of one faculty and three student debaters from Rutgers-Newark and two faculty and two student debaters from the Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) in New Brunswick. This was the fourth Project Civility Debate in the two-year project to promote discourse on how people treat one another at Rutgers’ New Brunswick campus.

The topic of this round was: Resolved, that covering one’s identity is detrimental to our society and our civil rights. Rutgers-Newark, a policy team who finished the year ranked 24th in the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) this year took the Affirmative, while RUDU represented the Negative. Bhargavi Sriram, Vice President of RUDU, and Quinn Maingi, star novice, were joined by Jenny Kurtz and Mark Schuster for the Negative side. Rutgers-Newark was represented by Maren Greathouse, Elijah Smith, Carlos Astacio, and Zach MacCord.

The round was written up in The Daily Targum, Rutgers’ flagship campus newspaper, in an article that appeared on the front page. The article incorrectly attributed Maingi’s speech to senior Kyle Bomeisl, who was originally slated to appear in the event.

The next RUDU public debate will be held on Thursday, April 26th, on radio station WRSU 88.7. This will be RUDU’s fourth appearance this year on the show The Difference, which discusses diversity issues. The debate, between four RUDU debaters, will discuss so-called “stand your ground” laws in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting.

RUDU stands 9th ranked in APDA with one weekend left in the regular season.

RUDU Wins 4th Novice Final in 5 Weeks

Alex Jubb (left) and Henry Phipps (right) celebrate their Novice Final win four weeks ago at F&M. They reprised the feat this weekend at Middlebury College, finishing as top novice team after wins in novice semis and finals.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) continued its dominance of novice divisions this year with the fourth novice final victory in five weekends at Middlebury College in Vermont. Alex Jubb & Henry Phipps bested a team from Dartmouth on a 4-1 decision to complete their run to top novice team. On the varsity side, three teams just missed the break, finishing 9th, 10th, and 11th teams all just shy of the quarterfinal advancement. Top among them were Bhargavi Sriram & Quinn Maingi who fell just half a point short of the break.

Here are the official results:
Bhargavi Sriram & Quinn Maingi – 9th Team
Kurt Falk & Arbi Llaveshi – 10th Team
Kyle Bomeisl – 8th Speaker
Alex Jubb & Henry Phipps – 1st Novice Team
Kurt Falk – 4th Novice Speaker
Quinn Maingi – 6th Novice Speaker
Alex Jubb – 10th Novice Speaker

The speaker finish put Falk back in 9th Novice of the Year standing with just one tournament remaining in this year’s regular season. Regular novice partner Maingi stands at 5th currently, two points behind 4th and four behind 3rd. Both Falk/Maingi and Jubb/Phipps are in the top ten ranked novice teams of the year.

The National Championship tournament looms just ten days away, opening April 20th at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Rutgers has qualified four individuals to Nationals and will thus be sending three teams to represent the University. There’s still a chance additional individuals will qualify at the season’s last tournament, however, this weekend at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

RUDU to Take on Rutgers-Newark in Public Debate on Civility Next Week

The colorful logo of Project Civility at Rutgers. The debate next Wednesday will be the fourth for RUDU's partnership with Project Civility in the last two years.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) will be taking on Rutgers-Newark in a public debate at the final Project Civility debate in the two-year history of the effort. Faculty from both Rutgers-New Brunswick and Rutgers-Newark will also be involved.

The event will be on Wednesday, April 11, 2012, at 8:00 PM. The debate will be held at the Raritan River Lounge in the Student Activities Center (SAC) on New Brunswick’s College Avenue campus. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

Senior Kyle Bomeisl and junior Bhargavi Sriram will be representing RUDU. They will be debating on the topic of whether “covering” one’s racial or gender identity is detrimental to civil rights and society at large.

Bhargavi Sriram (top) and Kyle Bomeisl (bottom) start planning for their arguments in next Wednesday's Civility debate at Swarthmore College last weekend.

Rutgers Wins Third Straight Novice Final; Novak Elected to APDA Board

The RUDU contingent at Boston University celebrates a third straight Novice Final victory. Left to right: Thomas O'Rourke, Henry Phipps, Rachel Cusumano, Quinn Maingi, Deepta Janardhan, Ashley Novak, Chris Bergman, Rachel Moon, Kurt Falk, Amanda Gaetano, Storey Clayton, Bhargavi Sriram, Kyle Bomeisl, Alex Jubb, Adam Bomeisl, Stephen Yellin, Arbi Llaveshi, Russell Potter, and Corey Girard.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) notched a third straight Novice Final round victory and the second straight for dominant novice team Quinn Maingi & Kurt Falk. Both Novice Final wins for the team have been on Government and have crowned Maingi & Falk novice champions of the respective tournaments. This time, the round was at Boston University, where APDA Elections for the coming year’s Executive Board were also held. In those elections, Ashley Novak was elected Member at Large and will be the first RUDU member ever to serve on the APDA Board.

Here are the accomplishments logged at BU:
Quinn Maingi & Kurt Falk – 1st Novice Team
Quinn Maingi – 3rd Novice Speaker

With three tournaments left in the 2012 regular season, RUDU remains ranked 8th in the country. The next two weekends will focus on qualifying more individuals for the National Championships. Rutgers is currently tied for 4th in the country with four debaters qualified (Chris Bergman, Ashley Novak, Kyle Bomeisl, and Maingi). Five more debaters have points toward qualification. Points are earned by reaching the varsity quarterfinals or higher.

The win by Maingi & Falk keeps them at 3rd-ranked team of the year in the unofficial Novice Team of the Year (NTOTY) standings. However, they beat the two teams higher than they are, from Brandeis and AU, en route to the BU Novice Championship.

Ashley Novak (center) is joined by rival candidates for Member at Large of the APDA Executive Board, as Ashley Woods (far right) presides.

Quinn Maingi in Novice Finals at BU (left) and Kurt Falk in Novice Semis at BU (right). The pair are one of the three best novice teams on APDA this year.

Rutgers Novices Dominate W&M with Second Straight Novice Final Victory

The RUDU contingent at William & Mary's second tournament of the season gather in the beautiful 80-degree weather for a post-tourney photo. Left to right: Corey Girard, Amanda Gaetano, Ashley Novak, Quinn Maingi, Storey Clayton, Bhargavi Sriram, Kurt Falk, Chris Kaplan, Kyle Bomeisl, Alex Jubb, Stephen Yellin, Leland Perice, Afshan Khan, Danial Manzoor, Arbi Llaveshi, Russell Potter, and Adam Bomeisl.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) won their second straight novice final round at William & Mary this weekend, after strong performances from both novice teams of Kurt Falk & Quinn Maingi, who won the final, and Russell Potter & Alex Jubb, who narrowly lost semifinals. The win for Falk & Maingi was their first ever novice final victory after novice breaks at a majority of tournaments they’ve attended together this year.

Here’s the roll of official accomplishments:
Arbi Llaveshi – 8th Speaker
Quinn Maingi & Kurt Falk – 1st Novice Team
Russell Potter & Alex Jubb – 3rd Novice Team
Kurt Falk – 5th Novice Speaker
Russell Potter – 7th Novice Speaker
Quinn Maingi – 8th Novice Speaker
Alex Jubb – 9th Novice Speaker

The novice speaker finish makes it six tournaments in a row with a top-ten novice speaker award for Russell Potter. The lack of a varsity break did snap a five-weekend streak for RUDU, though this was partially because of some changed partnerships in the effort to qualify more people for Nationals. Rutgers currently stands at four qualifications, which would enable Rutgers to send three teams. One more qualification would allow Rutgers to match last year’s four teams at the National Championships.

One month remains in the regular season. Rutgers remains ranked 8th in the country in its second most successful season ever.

RUDU Breaks Twice in Varsity, Thrice in Novice at F&M

The vast Rutgers contingent at F&M gathers for the post-finals photo with plenty of shiny hardware. Left to right: Jason Boyle, Thomas O'Rourke, Corey Girard, Stephen Yellin, Kurt Falk, Alex Jubb, Henry Phipps, Quinn Maingi, Kyle Bomeisl, Storey Clayton, Amanda Gaetano, Russell Potter, Ashley Novak, Asher Wasserman, Adam Bomeisl, Arbi Llaveshi, Daimler Vadlamuri, Rachel Cusumano, Archie Babu, and Sarthi Tuli.

The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) put together another successful weekend at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania this weekend. Kyle Bomeisl & Stephen Yellin broke and knocked off the top seed in quarterfinals en route to a 4th place finish. They were joined in the varsity break by Ashley Novak, who took 5th speaker overall, and Arbi Llaveshi. Meanwhile, on the novice side, three teams broke to novice semifinals. Henry Phipps and Alex Jubb beat a fellow Rutgers team in semis and then a Maryland team in finals to finish second overall in the novice division (a novice team broke to varsity outs) while winning a novice final round for their first time ever.

Here are the many achievements for RUDU at F&M:
Kyle Bomeisl & Stephen Yellin – 4th Team
Ashley Novak & Arbi Llaveshi – 6th Team
Ashley Novak – 5th Speaker
Stephen Yellin – 7th Speaker
Henry Phipps & Alex Jubb – 2nd Novice Team
Quinn Maingi & Kurt Falk – 4th Novice Team
Asher Wasserman & Daimler Vadlamuri – 5th Novice Team
Quinn Maingi – 2nd Novice Speaker
Asher Wasserman – 6th Novice Speaker
Henry Phipps – 7th Novice Speaker
Russell Potter – 9th Novice Speaker

The novice speaker finish was the first ever for Wasserman, who now becomes RUDU’s league-leading 8th novice on the the prestigious NOTY (Novice of the Year) board, surpassing Yale’s 7. Meanwhile, Potter won a novice speaker award for the fourth straight tournament and Maingi bolstered his top ten NOTY credentials.

RUDU remains ranked 8th in the country so far this season with 120 points, 15.5 behind 7th-place Bates College and 17.5 ahead of 9th-place University of Chicago. Five regular season tournaments remain before the National Championships at Wesleyan University.

RUDU has four qualified debaters to attend Nationals, with Yellin and Adam Bomeisl half-way to being numbers five and six.