The University of Michigan Debate program has won the 39th annual American Debate Association National Championship.

With this second consecutive year victory, Michigan is the first school to win back-to-back ADA championships since Vanderbilt University in 2011. The three-day tournament, held March 7-9 at Emory University, featured nearly 200 competitors from 30 institutions.

In the tournament’s final round, students from U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts—Eleanor Barrett, a sophomore from Austin, Texas, and Cyrus Esmailzadeh, a junior from Chicago—beat Georgetown University on a 3-0 decision. In the elimination rounds, they also defeated teams from the University of Kansas, the University of California at Berkeley and Northwestern University en route to the tournament victory.

For three other U-M teams, Avinash Shah and Rishi Shetty reached the quarterfinals, Gautam Chamarthy and Jerry Chen reached the Sweet Sixteen, and Robert Ou and Will Agustin reached the elimination round of 32.

U-M’s Debate Team, which began in 1903, is one of the oldest debate programs in the United States. The team will conclude the 2025-26 season at the 80th annual National Debate Tournament in Houston, on March 26-30. U-M won that tournament in 2024.