Wake Forest senior, Jamie Carroll ( Nashville, TN) and Brad Hall ( Manhattan, KS) reached the finals of the 60th National Debate Tournament held March 24-27 at Northwestern University. Wake Forest placed second in the elite field of 78 teams, losing on a split decision in the final round to Michigan State University. The team finished the preliminary rounds 6-2, defeating Dartmouth in round eight, earning a spot in the elimination rounds.

On their run to the finals they won consecutive 5-0 decisions over Harvard’s second team (round of 32) and Northwestern (round of sixteen). In the elite eight they defeated pre-tournament top-ranked Harvard 3-2 and second seeded Emory University s 4-1 in the semi-finals. Hall and Carroll improved upon their sweet sixteen 2004 and elite eight 2005 performance.

The team’s success is the second time Wake Forest has reached the National Championship round. Wake won the national title in 1997 and had has four final-four finishes in 1957, 1993, 1994, and 1995.

Among the 156 debaters at Nationals Carroll was names 8 th best speaker and Hall 9 th after the preliminary rounds.

Two other Wake Forest teams qualified for the NDT. Senior Elizabeth Gedmark ( Louisville, KY) and Junior Chris Sedelmyer( Erie, PA) and an all first-year team Seth Gannon ( Atlanta, GA) and Alex Lamballe ( Nashville, TN) both ended the competition with 4-4 records.

College Sports TV filmed during the tournament and will release their CSTV documentary later in the year.