USU Senior Wins Big at Virtual Debate Tournament

Over the weekend of November 13-15, while most students were looking forward to Thanksgiving and dreading the thought of finals, the members of the Utah State University debate team woke up early and stayed up late to compete at an online tournament. The Mahaffey, hosted by Linfield College in Oregon, is one of the oldest continuously-running debate competitions in the United States, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. The Aggies’ hard work was rewarded with good experiences and top marks.

Bryn Voigt, a senior studying political science with an impressive roster of 3 minors, won big at the tournament. In the open division of IPDA debate, Voigt earned first place for speaker points and advanced to the final round of the tournament, finishing in second place. To cap off the achievement, she won the Singletary Outstanding Debater Award, a distinction given to the top debater across all formats of competition at the tournament. Furthermore, Voigt holds the truly rare honor of earning the award two years in a row.

USU debate coach Chantelle Gossner says this is an awe-inducing achievement.

“It blows me away that Bryn was able to earn this award, which is a lifetime achievement for many debaters, not just once but twice,” Gossner said.

Gossner goes on to state that, despite usually having one of the smaller teams in attendance at the tournament, USU has taken home the Singletary Award three times in the past five years.

Recent events have brought many changes to the speech and debate community. Most notably, the vast majority of tournaments are now held exclusively online. While this has required extensive adaptation from tournament directors, coaches and debaters, the community continues to thrive. The fundamental skills and experiences that make debate worthwhile are still going strong.

“As always, it was interesting to research and analyze various topics,” said Voigt. “I love debate and the opportunity it gives me to improve my academic abilities.”

Gossner agrees that the incentive to build research and presentation skills is one of the best things about the debate community.

“It is amazing to watch students grow in their capacity to do fast, worthwhile research; analyze communication and argumentation; and increase their confidence, speaking skills, and knowledge of world events,” Gossner said.

While competition season is wrapping up for the fall, the USU debate team plans to return to tournaments in January 2021.