OU's two-person debate team won the national title earlier this month.
Jazmine Pickens, political science senior, and Darius White, communication junior, won the National University Debate Championship hosted by California State University, beating out 102 other two-man teams representing universities across the country, according to a press release.
The pair started their run in Long Beach off hot, the release said, going undefeated in the preliminary rounds of the tournament and earning the competition’s top seed.
The resolution to be debated at the tournament focused on whether the federal government should increase restrictions on executive power in various different areas, like the use of nuclear weapons and trade power, the release said.
Stephen Ellis, interim director of debate, praised the pair for refusing to stay conservative and championing their own arguments.
“They did it their way, with scholarship and arguments they believed in,” Ellis said in the release. “They didn’t try to please anyone else or play it safe, and nothing could have been more impressive.”
Pickens and White were not the only high-performing Sooners in the competition — the duo of Nico Juarez, Native American studies senior, and Jacob Smith, political science senior, tied for ninth place, earning the 10th seed in preliminary rounds with a 6-2 record, the release said.
According to the release, a third OU team, the pair of women's and gender studies freshman Raelynn Hanson and biochemistry freshman Brandon Rogers, earned 33rd place with a 5-3 record in the preliminary rounds.
