Baylor Debate Qualified to the National Debate Tournament for the 20th Consecutive Year

This past weekend, Baylor Debate qualified to the National Debate Tournament for the 20^th consecutive year! The team traveled to the University of Central Oklahoma to qualify for the NDT in a rigorous 8 round competition against other universities from a district covering Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The team of Lawson Hudson ('24) and Omar Darwish ('26) finished in third place overall and qualified to the National Debate Tournament! They defeated teams from Missouri State, North Texas, Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma, and Texas-Dallas. The also were the 4^th and 5^th place speakers at the tournament! This is Lawson's 3^rd NDT and Omar's 2^nd. The team of Anastasia Keeler ('27) and Shahina Chatur ('25) also competed at districts, forced online while battling food poisoning, finishing just one debate short of qualifying after recovering from an unlucky start. They will apply for a second round at-large bid and we wish them luck in the qualifying process.

Simultaneous with national qualifiers, Baylor also debated at the Mid-America Championship. The team of Kyla Pertuit ('27) and Aubree Camp ('27) had their best showing in the open division of the season, finishing 3-3 and just missing quarterfinals on speaker points. 

Congratulations to all these debaters continuing Baylor's legacy of success in intercollegiate debate! Sic 'em Bears!