Both of Dartmouth's debate teams lost in the quarterfinals of the National College Debate Tournament at Western Georgia College, which wrapped up on Wednesday.
The question for this year's tournament was, "Resolved: Criminal procedure in Federal courts with respect to pretrial detention and sentencing."
Although both teams were upset by lower-ranked teams in the tournament on Monday, Debate Director Ken Strange said the teams performed well.
"We were debating against people a little older," he said. "Based on how well the other teams were doing, we had a fine showing."
Dartmouth was the only school in the country to have two teams among the final eight competitors.
One of the College's teams, twins David Reymann '96 and Jonathan Reymann '96, entered the tournament seeded eighth in the nation.
Their 7-1 record after the first eight rounds of the tournament earned them the second slot in the elimination round, composed of 24 teams. The team was one of eight teams that received a bye for the first round.
The Reymann brothers lost to Northwestern University in the third elimination round. Northwestern entered the elimination rounds seeded seventh and went on to win the tournament on Wednesday.
The Reymanns lost the decision by a 3-2 judges' vote.
"It was a really close round," Jonathan Reyman said. "We thought we had done well. The decision could have gone either way. We thought we had a very good chance of winning."
Dartmouth's other team of Andre Hylton '96 and Marc Wilson '96 entered the national championships undefeated and ranked second in the nation.
After the first eight rounds of the tournament, their record was 6-2. The team was ranked fourth as they entered the elimination rounds.
But Hylton and Wilson fell to fifth-seeded Wake Forest, 4-3.
Although Wilson said they expected to win their round against Wake Forest, he did not blame their loss on an unfair decision.
"It's hard to claim that the decision was unfair," he said. "The quality of the judges in the elimination rounds was very high."
Strange said he is optimistic about the team's chances next year.
