Sunshine State Showdown

On October 1, the UM Debate Team sent its Policy Debaters to the campus of The University of Florida in Gainesville to compete against UF, UCF, and FSU in the Sunshine State Showdown. UDebate had an excellent showing with the team of Allana Persaud and Adam Kozloski and the team of Julia Lynch and Kristian Del Rosario each winning 3 of their 4 debates. Julia and Kristian were recognized as the 3rd place team. UM debaters also received individual speaker recognition with Jiaying Li winning the 3rd place speaker award, Julia Lynch winning 6th Place and Tiffany Perez receiving the 7th place individual award. Courtney Kloepper served as team mentor, providing coaching and leadership. The team was coached by Assistant Director of Debate, Patrick Waldinger, and graduate assistant debate coach Oliver Brass. As of October 1, 25 UM student debaters have represented The U in intercollegiate competition.