Laura Bucio
News Editor

Debate teams from different universities in the Southern California area had the opportunity to practice their delegation skills Saturday at the 2006 Intravarsity Debate Tournament in La Fetra Auditorium.

Several teams from different universities participated, including nine teams from the University of La Verne, nine from Cal State San Bernardino, seven from Cal State Los Angeles, one from Cal State Fullerton, five from Loyola Marymount University and five from the Claremont Colleges.

“We want to give the teams the opportunity to practice before the world championship,” said Ian Lising, debate team adviser and assistant professor of speech and debate. “It’s an opportunity to get the tournament experience.”

Two from ULV made it to the final round but Loyola Marymount ended up with the victory with a score of 5-0.

“Ian always puts on great tournaments,” said junior Karen Right from team LMU A. “It’s always nice to get a view of the competition before we hit them later.”

The final round began with the motion, “This house supports an independent Quebec” where team Claremont A and LMU supported the motion while both teams from La Verne took the opposing side.

LMU felt confident about its victory and considered its biggest challenger to be the team from the Claremont Colleges.

But La Verne didn’t leave empty-handed. John Patrick, senior speech communications and journalism major, and his partner Josh Martin, senior speech communications major, took Best Speaker awards.

Patrick said his biggest strength is his combination with Martin.

“He has a lot of strategic skills,” Patrick said. “Having that kind of knowledge brings more to the table.”

Patrick and Martin began the semester on the right foot when they won first place in their first tournament in the school year in late September at Occidental.

The tournament provided a good practice for all those that will be participating in the world championship, which will take place the week of Dec. 27 to Jan. 4 in Canada.

“It’s good to get the different viewpoints,” Patrick said. “But the best preparation is good old fashioned studying.”

Laura Bucio can be reached at lbucio@ulv.edu.