Ethics Bowl team wins third straight regional championship

For six DePauw students, Monon weekend wasn't about winning the Bell; rather, it was about winning the bowl.The DePauw team competed at the Central States Regional Ethics Bowl Competition at Marian College in Indianapolis on Saturday. The team placed first in the region for the third time in the past three years, qualifying for the national competition.

"This is an extremely talented and hard-working team, and there is strong team camaraderie," said the team's coach, professor Marcia McKelligan. "Two of our members competed in the nationals last year. We have a good idea of what to expect, and we will be ready."

The team consists of senior captain Jaclyn Harr, juniors Nick Casalbore, Kelly Gagnon and Emily McGill and sophomores David Cylkowski and Lauren Lefebvre.

The team reached the quarterfinals last year and hopes to do the same, if not better, this time around.

"I expect to do at least as well this time," McKelligan said. "I think we're good enough to win, but luck is a factor, mainly because the judging can be unpredictable."

Professor Robert Newton, also one of the team's coaches, agreed the team's national performance relies as much on the team's performance as it does the judges' reaction and ruling.

"We will meet only three of the contesting teams ... The judges of each match, ours as well as the others, are many," Newton said. "One can't be sure that the standards will be consistent across the matches. But in the past we have been in the top half of the contesting teams, and our team this year is more uniformly competent and dedicated. All we can do is expect a very good performance, and if the things we can't control come our way, we can hope for the very best."

Casalbore has participated in ethics bowl for the past three years and is proud of the team's achievement last weekend.

"I think the team did very well because of our intense preparation," Casalbore said. "We prepare more than any other team in the region. In the last week, we put in 25 hours of practice and meetings with coaches and group members. Everyone worked really hard and put in a lot of time. We have excellent team chemistry."

The preparation for competition started a month and a half before last Saturday. The team received 15 cases to study. Casalbore said of the 15 cases received, six will come up in competition, though the teams do not know which six. The team divides the cases among the six members, with each case assigned a primary and secondary person.

"The primary person has to present during their round if their case is selected, whereas the secondary person is responsible to do the re-rebuttal and help answer judges' questions," Casalbore said.

The competition consisted of three rounds. The DePauw team beat Harper College, Wright State University and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, respectively. In each round, the presenting team gives a seven-minute speech followed by the opposing team's five-minute rebuttal. The presenting team then has the opportunity to give a five-minute re-rebuttal, after which the judges ask the presenting team about the case and the team's stance. Teams switch roles in the second half of the round. Only five team members are allowed to present during the competition.

Though the team only had two returning members, Casalbore said the pressure to win was considerable.

"Last year, we went in, did our best and ended up winning," Casalbore said. "This year, we went into the competition wanting to win, so that adds a considerable amount of pressure. Our preparation for the regional competition this year is just as vigorous as our preparation for nationals last year, so it just shows how our strategy and overall program is having higher and higher expectations for the team and our performance during competition."

The national competition will be held at the end of February in Cincinnati. This year there will be 32 teams from eight different regions across the country.

"I would say it's worth [missing Monon]," Casalbore said. "It's sad that DePauw couldn't come out 2-0 for the weekend.