Marlborough Debate’s Historic Season

Marlborough Debate closed out a historic season with another record-shattering weekend of competition at the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Kentucky. This invite-only tournament is unique in its qualification process, with students earning bids to compete throughout the varsity season. This year, only 89 students from across the country earned bids to compete, bringing together the nation’s top high school debaters. Marlborough students earned 17 bids to the Tournament of Champions and Juniors Maya J., Hope L., and Wyeth R. qualified for the tournament – a testament to their incredible character and work ethic – making the trip to Kentucky to represent our school.

At such an elite level, the competition is fierce. Maya, Hope, and Wyeth prepared for the topic, Resolved: Justice requires open borders for human migration, meticulously.  Beginning their preparatory work in December 2022, these three debaters accumulated thousands of pages of research and argumentation and countless hours of practice by the time competition had arrived in April.

They began the competition strong, winning eight out of the first nine debates. Wyeth, Maya, and Hope battled valiantly and achieved historic success, even though the latter half of the tournament fared rockier for our debaters. 

Maya and Hope each earned a 3-3 record, an outstanding record at a tournament of such caliber. Wyeth earned a winning preliminary record and qualified for Octofinals. This is the furthest any Marlborough debater has ever advanced at the Tournament of Champions in school history–an achievement that automatically qualifies her for next year’s tournament. This showing breaks preexisting school records by a long shot in what has already been a nationally-competitive program for the last decade.

While Hope, Wyeth, and Maya were the standard bearers throughout this competition, their success would not have been possible without the brilliance and support of the entire Marlborough Debate program. Teammates helped conduct research and practice debates, and cheered on their friends throughout the season. Debate Program Head Adam Torson, and Coach Chris Theis spent countless hours in research and practice, guiding argument strategies in highly sophisticated and complex debate rounds, and providing invaluable advice and moral support in the strive to succeed during the tournament.

Join us in congratulating Wyeth, Hope, Maya, Mr. Torson, Mr. Theis, and the entire Marlborough Debate program on a record-breaking year. We look forward to all that you will continue to accomplish next season!