Ray won the top honor over 216 other college debaters from 40 institutions representing 16 states. Ray is a senior business major from Denver.

UK was the only school with three teams qualifying for the elimination rounds. Ray and his partner, Paul Jensen, a senior philosophy major from Seattle, competed through the second elimination round. Another UK team – Russ Hubbard, a sophomore political science major from Dallas, and Aaron Kall, a senior political science major from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – also competed through the second elimination round. The third UK team – Matt Akin, a sophomore political science major from Dallas, and Mike Tetzlaft, a sophomore political science major from Grove, Ill., competed through the first elimination round.

Four UK debaters are not new to national competition. Ray, Jensen, Kall and Hubbard participated in the national debate tournament held last spring in Detroit.

UK's delegation at the Iowa event also included UK director of Debate J.W. Patterson and Assistant Director Roger Solt.

The UK debate team hosts the National Thoroughbred Round Robin Sept. 29 and 30 and the Kentucky National Henry Clay Tournament Oct. 2-4. These two tournaments attract college debaters from across the country.

The 1999-00 collegiate debate topic is "The United States should remove all or nearly all sanctions and constructively engage one or more of the following countries: Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, Iran or Syria."

The UK Debate Team is consistently ranked in the top 10, often named as one of the top five programs in the nation. Kentucky debaters have been in seven Final Fours of the National Debate Tournament since 1971.