MONMOUTH, Ill. — The Monmouth College debate team opened its 2003-04 season hosting 15 teams from four colleges in the 2003 Central Round Robin on Sept. 27.

The tournament was designated as “open,” meaning the experience levels of teams varied from varsity competitors to novices competing in their first collegiate tournament. A team from McKendree College defeated Kenyon College in the final round of the tournament.

All four of the debaters competing for Monmouth saw their first MC action. The tandem of Joshua Sonnenburg and Emily Langdon brought previous collegiate or high school debate experience, while the team of Brandie Miller and Christina Simpson were in their first competition.

Sonnenburg, a junior transfer from Portland, Ore., and Langdon, who last year competed in one of Illinois’ best high school forensic programs, were undefeated after three preliminary rounds and knocked off a team that advanced to the semifinals. They missed qualifying for elimination rounds after dropping two narrow decisions late in the day.

“One of the rounds they lost came against a team that ended up in the finals and featured the top speaker in the tournament,” said the group’s student director, Ron Bronson Jr. “Their statistics put them in the top three among the field.”

Despite not being one of four teams to qualify for the semi-finals, Monmouth picked up its share of individual honors. Monmouth had three debaters in the top 10 out of 33 competitors. Sonnenburg was the third speaker, Miller took sixth and Langdon was 10th.

“All of the judges I spoke with who saw our debaters speak commented on how well they did,” said Bronson. “We’re happy with our initial performance, but we know they have a lot more to do. We’re pleased at the individual success, but we still have a lot to work on as a squad if we want to move into the upper echelon of teams in our conference and nationally. That means traveling outside of our region to quality tournaments.”