KU debaters Jyleesa Hampton, left, and Quaram Robinson, who finished second overall March 23, 2015, at the Cross Examination Debate Association National Tournament.

Hours after the Duke men’s basketball team beat Wisconsin to win last night’s NCAA National Championship, the National Debate Tournament championship was still, well, under debate.

Jayhawks weren’t there, either, though. Just before midnight — when I got an update from KU debate director Scott Harris — debaters from Northwestern University and the University of Michigan were still facing off for the title (Northwestern ultimately prevailed).

KU did send three teams to this year’s National Debate Tournament, however. According to Harris, here’s how they fared:

Jyleesa Hampton and Quaram Robinson made it the farthest. The pair went 5-3 in preliminary rounds to advance to the single elimination rounds. Facing George Mason University, a team that they had defeated in the preliminary rounds, Hampton and Robinson lost a 3-2 split decision in the first elimination round.

“Jyleesa and Quaram had a great season and ended it with a solid performance at the NDT,” Harris said, in an email. “It is always painful to lose your final debate on a split decision, but it happens when two talented teams debate each other.”

KU’s Ciera Foreman and Hunter Goh went 4-4 (with three of their losses being 2-1 split decisions) in the preliminary rounds. The third KU duo, Nick Khatri and Chris Carey, went 3-5 (four of their losses were 2-1 split decisions).

Harris said this was an “amazing” season for the entire squad (see my last blog post on the KU team for more on that) and that he was excited about the future.