Georgetown’s debate team shot to the top of the Cross Examination Debate Association national rankings of collegiate debate teams on Tuesday after winning the Henry Clay Debates at the University of Kentucky.

Andrew Markoff (SFS ’14) and Andrew Arsht (COL ’14) were voted to the No. 1 spot by their debating peers this week.

According to Jonathan Paul, director of Georgetown’s debate program, participating college policy debate programs submit a ballot every week ranking the current top teams in the nation.

While the poll is the closest college policy programs have to an official survey of the best teams, it is only one indication of how well the team is doing at a particular point during the season, according to Paul.

“This particular poll is followed by most major college policy programs since it was established,” Paul said. “But similar to college sports, it is still just a poll and only a recognition of how we are performing at a given point in the year.”

Competing in a field of 153 teams, Markoff and Arsht rode a 6-2 preliminary record to reach the elimination rounds of the Henry Clay Debates, where the two sophomores won the votes of all three judges in each round, eventually winning the entire tournament. They defeated teams from Baylor University, Liberty University, Emory University and Dartmouth College.

Markoff and Arsht also were ranked the third- and fifth-best individual speakers, respectively, for the tournament.

The team debated whether or not the U.S. Federal Government should substantially increase its democracy assistance for one or more of the following: Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.

Georgetown also fielded a second team composed of Richard Day (SFS ’14) and Tyler Engler (SFS ’15) that advanced to the elimination rounds after a 6-2 record in the preliminaries.

The debate team’s recent success marks the second year of the program’s restoration of the prominence it had in the 1970s. While the team was ranked ninth in the national rankings last fall, the debate program was positioned between first and third and won the Copeland Award from the National Debate Tournament five times this decade. The team fell from its prestigious acclaim when Debate Coach Jim Unger left the university. The program has been on the upswing since Paul was hired to mentor the students, however.

Even with the top ranking and finish, Markoff and Arsht said they are already focusing on tournaments later on this season.

“The real accolades are awarded at the National Debate Tournament in late March,” Paul said. “We are obviously all thrilled with the latest ranking, but we are more focused on getting ready for our next tournament.”

To prepare for tournaments, the debaters spend 30 to 40 hours every week tackling new topics and conducting research.

“You do research to develop sets of arguments that you think give you a strategic advantage in a debate,” Markoff said.

He added that it is a combination of individual sacrifice and group effort that drives the team.

“It requires a relentless amount of individual effort,” Markoff said, adding that this effort goes toward the team’s end product. “All of us are pretty focused on winning as a team.”

The team’s next tournament will be at Harvard over Halloween weekend, where they will compete against roughly 102 other teams for the championship.

“Our mantra for the year has been to take it ‘one debate at a time,’ and we will continue to do that in our preparation for Harvard,” Paul said. “There are a lot of great teams competing this year, and we will strive to be prepared for every contingency.”

Paul added that as the team has become more successful in competition, it has also seen an expansion in membership.

“Our team is steadily growing, and I’ve been humbled by the interest in the program from top high school debaters and other students on campus,” Paul said. “We’ve tripled in size over the last two years and because the current team is only freshmen and sophomores, we look poised to grow even more over the next few years.”