To close out the calendar year, the University of Rochester sent three teams to compete at the University of Southern California, featuring top teams from all over the country. In the varsity division, the team of Brittany Carter and Buddy Khan finished 3-4, while David Merkle and Ben Wittwer went 2-5, in an event that featured some of the best teams on the national circuit. In the JV division at USC, the UR team of Wan Cha and Rona Yang (both in their first year of debating) finished 4-3 and reached the semifinals before dropping to Whitman. Additionally, Rona Yang took home the fifth place speaker award in the JV division!