photo by: University of Kansas

KU debaters John Marshall and Graham Revare are pictured. The duo finished the season as the top ranked team in the nation.

Add another Final Four to the storied history of the University of Kansas debate program, and two more names — including a Lawrence student — to the list of potentially the greatest debaters in the school’s history.

The KU debate team finished second in the National Debate Tournament that concluded early Tuesday morning. KU finished as the nation’s runner-up debate team for the second consecutive year. It marked the 22nd time KU has reached the Final Four of the event, and the ninth time the school competed in the championship contest. KU has won the national championship six times, most recently in 2018.

While KU narrowly lost the championship contest — a 3-2 split decision among the judges — to Binghamton University, Jayhawk debater Graham Revare won the individual first-place speaker award at the tournament. Revare became the fourth Jayhawk in program history to win the top individual award at the tournament. He displaced his assistant coach — Azja Butler, the 2021 winner — as the most recent KU winner.

Revare was one half of the top debate duo in the country. Revare and John Marshall, a Free State High graduate and a KU junior, were named the winners of the Rex Copeland Award, which recognizes the top regular season debate team in the country. Marshall and Revare were the unanimous selection of the 12-member awards committee.

“This was another amazing season for KU Debate and John and Graham deserve recognition as one of the greatest teams in the history of the program,” Scott Harris, director of the KU debate program, said in a release. “They are not only extremely talented but exhibit class and character in every debate.”

KU had three pairs of debaters qualify for the National Debate Tournament, and all three reached the elimination round of the tournament. The team of Rose Larson and Luna Schultz advanced to the Sweet 16 of the tournament before losing a split decision to California State University-Long Beach.

The KU team of Jacob Wilkus and Ethan Harris advanced to the single round elimination stage of the tournament, but a loss to the University of Michigan stopped them from advancing to the Sweet 16.

Marshall and Revare avenged that loss by defeating Michigan in the Sweet 16, and defeated Dartmouth College, one of the other blue bloods in the debating world, to advance to the national championship contest. Only Northwestern, Harvard and Dartmouth have won more National Debate Tournament championships than KU’s six titles, which stretch from 2018 to 1954.

“I am so proud of these two incredible debaters and of the entire squad and coaching staff that worked so hard at the tournament and throughout the season,” Brett Bricker, KU’s head debate coach, said in a press release.

This year’s National Debate Tournament — the 79th annual — was hosted by Gonzaga University from April 4 through April 8. The national championship debate between KU and Binghamton ended at 2 a.m. on Tuesday. KU had the tough task of trying to beat Binghamton for a second time in the tournament. KU beat the New York school on a 2-1 decision in the preliminary rounds, but narrowly lost the rematch in the championship round.