A good debate weekend for the Pokes

Chris Crowe and Brian DeLong beat Weber's Shackelford and Roake twice, and provided Idaho State's Dewey and Dewey with their only loss, to win a spot at the 2004 National Debate Tournament, the Big Dance of American-style policy debate. Chris and Brian were aided by another Pokes team, Josh Schmerge and Jess Ryan, who knocked out Arizona State's Russell and Gray to capture a run-off spot, then sacrificed to Chris and Brian who were the higher seed. Chris was also named the tournament's second best speaker, quite an accomplishment for a sophomore.

The clinch players during this two-day quest for qualification in Las Vegas were UW assistant coaches Sarah Stone Watt and Jimbo Maritato. Chris and Brian were down 0-2 (surprisingly so, but we needn't discuss that) when Sarah and Jimbo rallied them and scouted info, helped them research answers to new strategies, and in general never stopped believing in them. It was inspiring to see the teamwork this weekend, including by another Wyoming team, Will Jensen and Seth "Pinto" Ellsworth, who had a rough tournament competitively, but whose hard work also benefitted Chris and Brian.

Meanwhile, up in Salem, OR, UW's Joshua House and Kristen Barton managed another stellar tournament at the Hatfield Debates sponsored by Willamette University, where they were third overall out of nearly 70 teams. Josh and Kristen have won the largest parliamentary tournament of the year (Point Loma's Sunset Cliffs Classic) and have been in quarter-finals or better at every large invitational in the nation. Josh and Kristen showed, once again, why they are ranked fifth in the nation out of over 1000 teams in the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence rankings.

Emily Cram and Angela Granum also managed to break out of the field for Wyoming at the Hatfields, advancing to the first elimination round. Go pokes!


Update on New Paltz and Jason West

Christopher Cooper writes on edebate:

"I don't think Jason is in trouble. As I understand it, the charges he is facing have nothing to do with the same-sex issue (on face), but whether he is allowed to marry folks without licenses.

"Interestingly, the section of the state domestic relations law cited by West as justification for his actions says in part that ''nothing in this article contained shall be construed to render void by reason of a failure to procure a marriage license any marriage solemnized between persons of full age.''

"And...the law firm Heller, Ehrman, White and McAuliffe has agreed to handle the case pro bono should the marriages be challenged in court, West said. The law firm has offices in New York City, San Francisco and other cities across the country."