These Jayhawks are still in the running for national titles: a KU debate team and a KU-exclusive sandwich

photo by: Sara Shepherd

The National Debate Tournament kicked off Friday, March 24, 2017, at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park. Pictured competing in the day's first round of debates is the KU team of Henry Walter (left) and Jacob Hegna, against the Indiana team of Bee Smale (left) and Harry Aaronson. The tournament is expected to run through late Monday night.

After a rough loss to the University of Oregon Saturday night, the University of Kansas men’s basketball team is out of the running for a national title this year. However, they weren’t the only Jayhawks competing for national championships over the weekend, and — at least as of this afternoon — a KU debate team and a certain campus sandwich still have a shot at going all the way.

As you may know if you read my story from Friday, the National Debate Tournament is being hosted at KU this year, and today is the final day of competition. Three KU duos qualified to compete, and one was still standing as of early this afternoon: the team of Jacob Hegna and Henry Walter, both sophomores from Overland Park.

After lunch, Hegna and Walter were heading into the National Debate Tournament equivalent of the NCAA Elite Eight, said KU debate director Scott Harris. They were to face a team from Wake Forest University.

Technically, debate has different terms for their respective rounds in the national tournament. But for media interviews they’re good sports about translating those to terms more understandable to most outsiders. As Harris says about the collegiate debate world, “It is a strange and unusual universe.”

A major difference from the NCAA basketball championship: Whatever team wins the National Debate Tournament will have competed in four debates in a single day. The equivalent of the NCAA Sweet 16 started this morning; the championship round will start tonight and possibly last into the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“We do our Sweet 16 through the championship debate all in one day,” Harris said. “It’s an endurance contest … Each debate is kind of like playing a basketball game — it’s two hours of strenuous physical and intellectual activity.”

KU debate started today with two teams still in play, but the duo of Quaram Robinson, a junior from Round Rock, Texas, and Kyndall Delph, freshman from Little Rock, Arkansas, lost their Sweet 16 round this morning to a team from Harvard University — one member of which is the reigning national champion, Harris said.

Stay tuned, I hope to have an update later today or on Tuesday on how the remaining KU debate team fares.

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KU still has a chance to beat Oregon — if only in Food Management’s 2017 Menu Madness competition. Food Management created a bracket of signature campus menu items from top seeds in the NCAA men’s basketball regions.

Representing KU this year is not past online bracket powerhouse, the Crunchy Chicken Cheddar Wrap, but a new menu item: the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe BBQ sandwich, available at Courtside Café inside the newly opened DeBruce Center. The sandwich has pulled pork, bacon, apple-cider slaw, cheddar cheese and fried onion straws — all piled on the same bun.

In the first round of Menu Madness, KU handily beat out Purdue University’s littleneck clam, crawfish and shrimp paella. Now KU is up against a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with macaroni and cheese (yes, I said a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with macaroni and cheese) from the University of Oregon.

Voting for the second round — which determines which menu item reaches the Menu Madness version of the Final Four — is open until midnight Tuesday online at food-management.com.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.