This past weekend, from April 9-12, Texas Debate competed online in the Cross Examination Debate Association’s National Championship Tournament. Zach Watts (‘21, Chemical Engineering) and first-year Het Desai (‘24, Business Honors) took home the national championship. This marks the first time in the history of the program that Texas has won the CEDA Tournament.
The team began their tournament winning four of six preliminary debates. They scored wins against California State University-Long Beach, Liberty University, and two hybrid teams. The first was a combination of students from the University of Minnesota and Concordia University. The second was students from Harvard College and Amherst College. Due to the on-line format of the tournament, some students elected to compete with colleagues from other universities.
Both debaters received speaker awards commending them for their oratorical style. Het received 8th speaker and Zach received 13th speaker out of a field of 150 students.
Zach and Het advanced to elimination debates as the 12th seed. They won their first three elimination debates on 3-0 decisions; defeating two teams from the University of Michigan and one team from Emporia State University. In the final four they defeated the top seeded team, a hybrid from the University of Kansas and the University of Southern California, on a 2-1 decision. In the final round, Zach and Het defeated the University of Central Oklahoma on a 5-4 decision.
Prior to the tournament, Zach received recognition alongside other junior and senior competitors for his outstanding academic accomplishments and contributions to the team. Zach was named a 2021 CEDA All-American and recognized as a member of the Cum Laude Academic honor roll.
CEDA was the culmination of an incredibly successful season for Zach and Het. They were ranked #13 in the nation as a result of their regular season performance and were awarded a First Round At-Large Bid to the National Debate Tournament, a separate national championship tournament that occurred in March. Receiving a first round is an exceptional honor. The last time a Texas team accomplished this feat was sixteen years ago during the 2004-2005 season. Het Desai was also recognized as the 19th speaker at the NDT.
Samantha Healey (’23, Mechanical Engineering) and Ben Noriega (’23, Economics) also had an outstanding tournament, finishing in the round of thirty-two. They accrued wins in preliminary debates over the United States Military Academy, the University of Oklahoma, and a hybrid team from the California State University-Fullerton and Fullerton College. They also won their first elimination debate against a team from the University of Iowa on a 3-0 decision. The tournament marked the first time Sammy and Ben advanced to elimination debates at a major national tournament.
Assistant coach and program alumni David Kilpatrick (’18, Philosophy) also received the 2021 CEDA South Central region’s Outstanding Critic of the Year Award.
Overall, it was an outstanding outing for Texas Debate. The win was extra special despite being online because it came after a national championship season in 2020 that was canceled due to COVID-19. Texas Debate is incredibly proud of team president Zach Watts for his contributions the past four years and wishes him well as he prepares to graduate.
