About Us
Our Topic
Middle and High School Debate Institute
A History of Excellence
This year, the national college policy debate community is debating the following topic:
"Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights and/or duties in one or more of the following: artificial intelligence, nature, nonhuman animal species."
A History of Excellence
Middle and High School Debate Institute
A History of Excellence
Founded in 1974, the Mason Debate Team has been a core program fulfilling the university's history of excellence within research and advocacy. We are consistently ranked in the top five programs in the country by the Cross Examination Debate Association, the American Debate Association, and the National Debate Tournament sweepstakes championships. Our team goal is to make debate accessible and possible for debaters of all skill levels, from novice to nationally competing varsity debaters.
Middle and High School Debate Institute
Middle and High School Debate Institute
Middle and High School Debate Institute
The Mason Debate Team also hosts the largest middle school and high school debate camp in the state of Virginia.
We offer classes for 6th through 12th grade students in policy style debate. Visit "Debate Camp" in our navigation bar for more information.
2022-2023 Season Results
Northwestern University
University of Mary Washington
Northwestern University
Mason Debate had an excellent season opener! Two JV partnerships ended in the elite eight. Congratulations to Sarah Alshuhayeb & Adam Rizzoli and Alysa Yalch & Ankita Bhurtel for their impressive showing! We also sent six novice teams to their first ever debate tournament. Congratulations to all twelve for their hard work, and specific congrats to Nathan Stolzenfeld and Abhinav Dinesh for reaching the final four!
University of Kentucky
University of Mary Washington
Northwestern University
Our debaters had a great time at the Kentucky tournament! We sent a small contingent of two novice teams and one varsity team to the Bluegrass state. Each team cleared to elimination rounds! Congrats to Noah Reed and Nick Loew for their doubles showing in varsity, Isabelle Kirabo and Megan Rodak for their quarterfinals appearance, and Nathan Stolzenfeld and Brenda Reyes for winning the whole tournament!
University of Mary Washington
University of Mary Washington
GMU dominates at the University of Mary Washington tournament! In JV we reached the final four and in novice we had two teams make it to the elite eight! Congratulations to:
Ankita Bhurtel & Alysa Yalch - Semifinals
Laura Biegel & Dean Richter - Quarterfinals
Abhinav Dinesh & Alavi Shihab - Octafinals
Hailey Patel & Brenda Reyes - Quarterfinals
United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
Mason Debate continues their season of success at the West Point tournament. Congratulations to all three divisions for advancing to at MINIMUM the final four. Special congratulations to novices Brenda and Nathan for having a second finals appearance!
Sarah Alshuhayeb & Adam Rizzoli - Semifinals
Laura Biegel & Dean Richter - Quarterfinals
Brenda Reyes & Nathan Stolzenfeld - Finals
Nick Loew & Noah Reed - Semifinals
Liberty University
United States Military Academy
ADA Fall Championship
Mason sent three novice teams to the Liberty tournament, and all three teams ended at least .500! Special congratulations to Megan Rodak and Hailey Patel for winning the tournament; Sean Riehman-Murphy for winning three out of six debates at his first ever debate tournament; and Brenda Reyes (1st Speaker), Abhinav (2nd Speaker), and Alavi Shihab (5th Speaker) for receiving top speaking awards!
ADA Fall Championship
United States Military Academy
ADA Fall Championship
Mason's novices had an amazing showing at the fall championship tournament! Four of our partnerships reached the elimination rounds, and we had three debaters in the top speaker list. Congrats to Nathan (2nd Speaker), Megan (3rd Speaker), and Dean (8th Speaker).
Laura Biegel & Dean Richter - Octafinals
Hailey Patel & Abhinav Dinesh - Quarterfinals
Megan Rodak & Nathan Stolzenfeld - Semifinals
Alavi Shihab & Amira Shananier - Octafinals
Wake Forest
James Madison University
Naval Academy
Nick Loew and Noah Reed advanced to elimination rounds at the Wake Forest tournament after ending their preliminary debates with a 4-2 record! They beat a tough team from West Georgia in their first elimination round and then lost their second elimination round against the semifinalists from CSU Long Beach. Congrats GMU LR!
Naval Academy
James Madison University
Naval Academy
Mason concludes their winter break tournament at the Naval Academy as champions of the junior varsity division and finalists and octafinalists of the novice division! Jay Fuchs (4th speaker) and Ankita Bhurtel (9th speaker) win the Junior Varsity division! Coach Pavan Reddy took home the 2023 Frank Harrison Excellence in Coaching Award as well! Nathan Stolzenfeld (1st speaker) and Brenda Reyes (3rd speaker) end the tournament as finalists. Alavi Shihab (9th speaker) and Amira Shananier (12th speaker) advance to octafinals! All teams ended prelims with a winning record!!
James Madison University
James Madison University
James Madison University
Mason novices continue their domination of this season with another championship under their belt at the James Madison tournament! Congratulations to all three of our novice teams who advanced to elimination rounds, and to Megan Rodak and Nathan Stolzenfeld for winning the tournament! We also completed the tournament with half of the top overall speakers in novice: Nathan Stolzenfeld (1st), Dean Richter (2nd), Amira Shananier (3rd), Megan Rodak (4th), and Alavi Shihab (6th)!
Texas Austin
James Madison University
Mason ends the University of Texas Austin tournament as novice co-champions and jv finalists! Congrats to Nathan Stolzenfeld, Megan Rodak, Amira Shananier, and Hailey Patel for winning first and second place in the novice division! Congratulations as well to Jay Fuchs and Ankita Bhurtel for their second place finish in junior varsity.
Major kudos also goes to our varsity debaters, Nick Loew and Noah Reed for switching right to coaching our novice and jv students as soon as they ended prelims! We win together as a team effort.
District VII Qualifier
District VII Qualifier
Mason has qualified two teams to the National Debate Tournament! Congratulations to Nick Loew and Noah Reed for advancing as the second overall team from District VII as well as earning 1st and 4th speaker!!! Noah is also a freshman, so amazing job getting to the NDT your first year in debate!
Also congratulations to Ankita Bhurtel and Jay Fuchs for advancing as the 7th overall team! Ankita and Jay both started debate as college novices last year, so this is an amazing achievement!!
Amazing tournament and such great teamwork from everyone of the squad to make this happen!
ADA Nationals at Georgetown
Mason Debate wins the American Debate Association National Championship in novice!! Congrats to Megan Rodak and Nathan Stolzenfeld for an amazing performance!
The team overall came out in a huge force, below are the other accomplishments we achieved at ADA Nationals:
Brenda Reyes, 2nd overall speaker in novice
Hailey Patel, 4th overall speaker in novice
Nathan Stolzenfeld, 9th overall speaker in novice
Megan Rodak, 10th overall speaker in novice
Nathan Stolzenfeld, Novice Debater of the Year!
Nick Loew and Noah Reed, Doubleoctafinalists
Hailey Patel and Brenda Reyes, Semifinalists
Dean Richter and Alavi Shihab, Quarterfinalists
Congrats to the whole team!
CEDA Junior Varsity & Novice Nationals at West Virginia University
Mason has won back to back championships! Congratulations to Megan Rodak and Nathan Stolzenfeld for winning their second novice nationals championship in a row!
We also had several other amazing accomplishments this weekend!
Speaker Awards:
Jay Fuchs - 2nd JV Speaker
Ankita Bhurtel - 9th JV Speaker
Nathan Stolzenfeld - tied for 1st Novice Speaker
Megan Rodak - tied for 1st Novice Speaker
Brenda Reyes - 3rd Novice Speaker
Elimination Success:
Jay Fuchs/Ankita Bhurtel - JV Semifinalists
Amira Shananier/Brenda Reyes - Novice Semifinals
Dean Richter/Manasvani Vantikommu - Novice Quarterfinalists
Alavi Shihab/Hailey Patel - Novice Quarterfinalists
2021-2022 Tournament Results
Dartmouth Round Robin
Every year, Dartmouth invites the top seven varsity partnerships in the nation to the most elite tournament of the season, the Dartmouth Round Robin. The last time George Mason was inviting to this tournament was in 1994, when the partnership of Ryan Galloway and Gordon Stables received an invitation.
This year, GMU Debate received their second ever invitation for varsity partnership Eliza Buckner and Noah Graham.
The work that Eliza and Noah have done this year has been nothing short of exceptional. While competing at the Dartmouth tournament, they also beat the second ranked team in the country from Northwestern University.
Naval Academy
Congratulations to Alysa Yalch and Ankita Bhurtel for winning the United States Naval Academy Debate Tournament, Mason Debate's spring semester opener. This marks the sixth tournament of the semester where Mason novices have reached finals!
Alysa is also the tenth Mason debate novice to join the finals club this year! We are very proud of our hardworking novices.
Beyond winning the Navy tournament, four of Mason's novices received speaking awards at the tournament. Congratulations to Sama Al Ani (2nd place), Jay Fuchs (3rd place), Alysa Yalch (6th place), and Ankita Bhurtel (9th place).
At the Navy tournament, we also had a new novice, Enoch Chung, competing at his first ever debate tournament after joining the team in late November. Enoch and Sarah Alshuhayeb won 5 of their 6 preliminary debates, advancing to semifinals of the tournament. Not too bad for his first tournament! Congrats Enoch and Sarah!
Wake Forest
Congrats to Mason Debate for an amazing weekend at the Wake Forest Varsity Debate Tournament and the ADA JV/Novice Fall Championship!
In varsity, Eliza Buckner and Noah Graham had another National Final Four appearance, beating Dartmouth in quarterfinals, Wake Forest in octafinals, and Trinity in double octafinals! Mary Beth Armstrong and Nick Loew also reached elimination rounds!
In novice, we had our fifth tournament in a row in finals! Congrats to Ankita Bhurtel and Jeremy Brown for ending as finalists. This was Jeremy’s second finals appearance. Ankita now joins the eight other Mason novices in the finals club!
ADA Fall Championship
Congrats to Mason Debate for an amazing weekend at the Wake Forest Varsity Debate Tournament and the ADA JV/Novice Fall Championship!
In varsity, Eliza Buckner and Noah Graham had another National Final Four appearance, beating Dartmouth in quarterfinals, Wake Forest in octafinals, and Trinity in double octafinals! Mary Beth Armstrong and Nick Loew also reached elimination rounds!
In novice, we had our fifth tournament in a row in finals! Congrats to Ankita Bhurtel and Jeremy Brown for ending as finalists. This was Jeremy’s second finals appearance. Ankita now joins the eight other Mason novices in the finals club!
Liberty University
Congrats to Jay Fuchs and Sama Al Ani for ending as finalists at the Liberty Debate Tournament!!!
This was also Sama and Jay's first tournament together as a partnership. It's amazing to see the adaptability and drive of our novices this year.
This is the Mason Novice squad’s fourth tournament in a row in the finals, and each appearance has been a different pair of debaters. So congrats to the eight Mason novices for being in the tournament finals club!!
University of Mary Washington
Mason Debate is on a role in the novice division, with our THIRD CONSECUTIVE finals round at the University of Mary Washington tournament. Not only that, but it is our third novice team to have such great success.
Congrats to Scott Tatum and Austin Emery for winning the UMW tournament. This team is the definition of determination. After attending their first tournament and having a 0-6 record, they finished their second tournament as the ultimate winners!
Not only did Mason Debate novices have an amazing weekend at the University of Mary Washington tournament, but our awesome varsity duo of Mary Beth Armstrong and Nick Loew ended the tournament as finalists in a 2-1 decision against an exceptional team from the University of Minnesota.
Harvard
Mason Debate had two back to back successful weekends in novice and varsity! Congrats to Eliza Buckner and Noah Graham for reaching the sweet sixteen of the Harvard Debate Tournament, beating Dartmouth in their first elimination debate! GMU BG has been having a phenomenal season, and we are excited to see their continued success.
GMU BG is on track this year to qualify for a First-Round-At-Large Bid to the National Debate Tournament, an honor only the top 16 teams in the country earn. We wish them continued luck as they work for that goal.
West Point
Congratulations to Amanda Magpiong and Sam Bahamonde for winning the United States Military Academy debate tournament, defeating a top notch team from Liberty University. We also had two other teams in the final 8 of the tournament, the partnerships of Jay Fuchs/John Dressel and Ankita Bhurtel/Alysa Yalch! Great job all!
The Mason Novice squad also received three of the top five speaker awards at the tournament! Congrats to Amanda for 2nd overall, Sam for 3rd overall, and Jay for 4th overall.
Competing as a collegiate policy debate novice is an incredibly difficult task. Mason Debate is proud of our new debaters for taking on the challenge, expanding their knowledge, and continually striving to learn!
Kentucky
After 10 debates, 720 minutes of speaking, and three days of 8am to 9pm debate engagement, Eliza Buckner and Noah Graham end their epic run at the University of Kentucky tournament in semifinals! We debated against the top two speakers at the tournament from Liberty University, Natalie Robinson and Kat Cazeau.
Major congratulations to these four debaters from D7 for an amazing FINAL FOUR debate. Mason Debate will have to do some history checking, but what we know at the moment is that it has been quite a while since Mason reached the Final 4 at the Kentucky tournament.
So proud of Eliza and Noah, and excited to see how the rest of the season shapes out for Mason Debate.
Binghamton University
Mason Debate sent 14 novices to their first tournament this weekend, a great tournament hosted by Binghamton University. Congratulations to Aarush Jambunathan and Jeremy Brown for ending the tournament as finalists!
Our JV debaters also had an amazing season opener, ending the tournament as co-champions! Congrats to Aansa Virk, Darshni Patel, and Luke Palmieri for winning the division!!!
Northwestern
Northwestern
The Mason Debate Team sent two partnerships to the national opening tournament hosted by Northwestern University. Both teams advanced to elimination rounds! Big congratulations to Eliza Buckner, Mary Beth Armstrong, Nick Loew, and Noah Graham for their amazing first tournament showing.
The teams beat debaters from Harvard, Dartmouth, Northwestern, University of Michigan, University of Kansas, University of Kentucky, and Missouri State to qualify to eliminations!
2020-2021 Tournament Results
ADA Fall Championships
Lindsay Lowry and Ceili Peake continue their run of success with another championship title at the Fall Semester national championship hosted by the American Debate Association. They also earned individual speaker awards, Lindsay as Top Overall Speaker and Ceili as 3rd place speaker!
Gonzaga University
Great outing at the Gonzaga tournament for Mason Debate. Major congratulations are in order for the two Mason Debate pairings of Lindsay Lowry/Ceili Peake and Tiff Imbimbo/Adit Singh for ending their tournament as CO-CHAMPIONS! Not to be outdone, our novice team of Emily Portalatin and Pearl Matibe also won their division!
University of Mary Washington
University of Mary Washington
Aiden and Tim are back at it again with another finalist appearance at the University of Mary Washington debate tournament! They also received 1st and 2nd overall speaker at the tournament. Congratulations to these two freshman debaters, we anticipate even more success to come!
University of Kentucky
University of Mary Washington
Mason Debate once again advanced all teams to elimination rounds! In Varsity, Nick Loew and Ian Morris advanced and debated Wake Forest in the double-octafinals, dropping on a tight 2-1 decision. In Junior Varsity, Tiff Imbimbo and Adit Singh ended their tournament as finalists! Ceili Peake and Lindsay Lowry also advanced in elimination rounds, concluding their race in semi-finals. Adit Singh also ended the tournament taking home Top Overall Speaker!
Binghamton University
Congratulations to ALL mason teams for advancing to elimination rounds at the Binghamton University Debate Tournament! Six teams competed for Mason at Binghamton, and each reached elimination rounds. At their first college debate tournament, Aiden Breneman-Pennas and Timothy Phillips concluded as finalists! Aiden also received the Top overall speaker award. Congratulations also to the partnerships of Luke Palmieri/Shelby Ryder and Darshni Patel/Aansa Virk for ending their tournament as semi-finalists!
Northwestern University
Mason Debate advanced two teams into the varsity elimination rounds at the Northwestern University Season Opener! Jack Daou and Ian Morris ended their tournament journey in their first elimination round on a close 2-1 decision against a tough team from Harvard. Eliza Buckner and Noah Graham won their first elimination round on a conclusive 3-0 decision against Georgetown, and ended in their second elimination round on another close 2-1 decision against Wake Forest.