On March 15, the LM Debate team made their way to Bloomsburg University to compete in states, with one dynamic duo fighting for a chance at a public forum states title, as well as a single competitor fighting for the Lincoln-Douglas states title. While both teams debated as hard as they could, they sadly did not win states and got eliminated.
Public forum is a form of debate where competitors are given prompts regarding political issues to be solved in the current day. This form of debate relies mostly on tangible evidence, such as statistics, reliable quotes, and sources. The information the competitors gather is used to make contentions, which are arguments that they use to lay the foundation for their side of the debate. The goal in a public forum debate is to poke holes in the opponent’s evidence and logic to disprove their arguments, while further proving your own. The Lincoln-Douglas competition focuses on more abstract arguments regarding topics that aren’t necessarily contemporary, but rather more social or moral topics. Both arguing styles are similar, however, ethics play more of a role in Lincoln-Douglas.
LM’s public forum duo that competed at states was Yicheng Long ’25 and Aliyah Brownstein ’25. The two put up a strong fight and dominated the preliminary rounds, but were ultimately defeated in the top sixteen. Notably, they were the only team in Districts to go undefeated. Long explains that “it was quite an enjoyable experience. Everything about it was a blast.” Brownstein adds, “I’m super proud of how we did this year, and I’d definitely love to see us go back to Districts and states next year, hopefully not just winning, but also bringing more club members with us.” This year was the first year that both students competed in states for LM public forum, with Long being a new student in the district and Brownstein switching to public forum after debating in parliamentary earlier in the year.
Daniel Mollick ’27, who debated Lincoln-Douglas at states, has had a remarkable first year in debate. He has dominated the majority of the debates he competed in throughout the year, but remains humble, willing to learn from each competition. He qualified for states by coming in second at districts, which is a significant milestone in Mollick’s debate career so far. He won his first two rounds of debates at states, but missed the spot for the top sixteen. Being a complete rookie in debate, Mollick says, “Ultimately, I felt that I gave a strong performance but compared to some of the higher level debaters there it felt futile.” His losses can be attributed to his lack of experience, which will change with time. Mollick’s potential is incredible, and he will continue to be a more considerable contender for states as his experience with higher-level debates grows.
The debate season for the Long and Brownstein duo and Mollick has been impressive, with wins at competitions left and right. It is also important to note that there were many teams that didn’t make it out of districts but still had strong performances throughout the season. Hopefully next year, more debate teams will dominate districts, and LM debate can have a state finalist—or even a winner—in the coming years. The club has been seeing an increase in participation from freshmen each year, and the overall success of the club is only going to improve.
