SAC Debate Team triumphs at Regionals

Debate Team winners, from left, Katelyn Shaughnessy, Edward Frankonis, Rebecca Pelletier, Kaitlin Morel, and Drew Collins.

Anselm.edu\Saint Anselm College

Debate Team winners, from left, Katelyn Shaughnessy, Edward Frankonis, Rebecca Pelletier, Kaitlin Morel, and Drew Collins.

The Saint Anselm College Debate Team took 1st place at the Emerson College Tournament and also took 1st place at the Northeast Regional Championships held at Suffolk University. Overall, five students qualified for the National Tournament. Both tournaments were held the weekend of Feb. 18-19 in Boston.

Schools attending included Suffolk University, Emerson College, Ithaca College, Bridgewater State University, Cornell University, Nassau Community College, George Mason University and St. Anselm College.

Senior Rebecca Pelletier was 1st place and sophomore Drew Collins was 2nd place in Lincoln Douglas policy debate at the Emerson College Tournament. Meanwhile, Edward Frankonis, also a sophomore, reached the final round against Cornell University and finished 2nd place in IPDA (Public Debate) at the Emerson Tournament on Saturday. In the field of Individual Events, first-year student Cassandra Moran was 3rd place in Informative Speaking. The debate team took 1st place in overall Debate Sweepstakes.

The results on Sunday at the Northeast Regional Championships were equally good. In Lincoln Douglas policy debate, Edward Frankonis was 1st place and Rebecca Pelletier was 2nd place. In IPDA debate, Drew Collins was 3rd place reaching the Semifinal rounds. Also, Cassandra Moran was 3rd place Speaker and Erica Davis was 5th place Speaker in IPDA debate. In Individual Events, Margaret McSherry was 4th place in Persuasion, while Cassandra Moran was 5th place in Informative and Katelyn Shaughnessy was 6th place in Informative. Once again, the debate team took 1st place in overall Debate Sweepstakes.

The team was assisted by several St. Anselm alumni who helped as judges at the tournament. The team would like to thank Jessica Foster Correia (2006), Katherine Muzzy (2015) and Richard Bergeron (2014). The team was accompanied by their coach, David Trumble.

The Martin Luther King debate that was postponed two weeks ago due to the snowstorm has been rescheduled for this Thursday night at 7:00 pm in Perini Lecture Hall. The topic will still be about President Trump’s war on the media.