Kansas State took one team to Las Vegas this last weekend for the first annual Vegas Classic debate tournament. Beth Mendenhall & Kyle Zarazan were accompanied by coaches Sarah & Megan on this trip.
The tournament started out great, Beth & Kyle were 3-1 on the first day beating teams that we love to beat like Wichita, Baylor & Emory. Comments on the first day included one judge telling the Cats that Kyle's 2AC was exactly how he would envision the perfect 2AC. Early on the second day, the Judge from our round 4 win over Emory went out of his way to find the KSU coaches and rave about what a good team Kyle & Beth were. Sunday was harder than Saturday as we debated the top of the bracket. Defeating yet another Emory team in the morning propelled us to debate the top seed & fellow Big 12 team Baylor. While we were not victorious in this debate, the Judge did indicate that he really enjoyed the debate. After this loss we had a hard time recovering, losing the next debate to Macalester.
At the end of the day, in the double octafinal debate, we met Vermont, both Megan & Sarah's Alma Mater. Megan was filled with intense desire to win coaching with incredible vigor. With everyone pumped going into the debate, Kyle & Beth held true to their mission solidly defeating the Catamounts on a 3-0 decision.
The next morning we were affirmative against arch rival KU and while one Judge said this was the best debate he had seen in five years, all three judges agreed that our time competing in Vegas was over. So, sadly we lost to KU.
Our loss to KU was softened by speaker awards. Kyle finished 15th in a field of 110 and Beth finished 8th. So, all in all it was a VERY successful weekend.
With 4 hours left after the awards ceremony before our flight left we checked out the Bellagio where we all realized that we are far better debaters than gamblers.
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