Last spring, James Hilbert and Sam Derrick went on a historic run at the national tournament. Both debaters found themselves in the semi-final round. If both debaters had won, it would have set up the first time teammates debated in the final round of the national tournament! Unfortunately, Sam Derrick was bested by Kaleb Jessee of Western Kentucky University. Kaleb would go on to defeat James Hilbert in the final round on a 3-2 decision. Still, despite that loss, Lafayette had its best finish at nationals in the team’s history and placed two debaters in the top 4. A remarkable achievement.
Fast forward to this fall. Now a senior, James Hilbert picked up where he left off and had one of the best semesters of any debater in recent memory in the Fall of 2010. His semester began in late September at Western Kentucky University. James finished in 1st place at this tournament defeating a debater from Truman State University in the final round. This triumph was only the beginning. The following weekend on home soil, James defeated Sarah Spiker-Rainey from Western Kentucky University in the final round of the Lafayette College Fall Invitational. The very next weekend, the team traveled to West Chester University. This small regional tournament continued his success as he once again was victorious in the final round.
In late October, James took a few weeks off to recuperate and apply to PhD schools in Engineering before returning to action the first weekend in November at St. Anselm’s College in New Hampshire. At St. A’s James picked up where he left off, by winning the final round on a 3-2 decision. After another break to resume his graduate school planning, the team traveled to the Ohio State University for their biggest test of the semester. OSU has a very competitive and strong tournament, and attracts the best debate programs from around the nation. Once again James found himself in the final round and once again he was victorious. James became the first Lafayette debater to win this prestigious tournament at Ohio State.
If you weren’t keeping score, that was five tournaments entered and five tournament wins! This level of success is unprecedented in the activity and cements James Hilbert as the clear front runner to win nationals.
The team begins its travels during the spring semester with a tournament at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. This tournament will be the largest debate tournament of the year outside of nationals and is a strong test. Victory at Webster is far from assured, as no Lafayette debater has won this tournament before. Our best finish at Webster is as a semi-finalist a few years ago. Wish us luck and follow along on our quest for a national championship!
AWESOME! Keep going strong!