Debate Society Gears Up for Nationals

John R. Park Debate Society

February is the month when the John R. Park Debate Society gears up for nationals and fine-tunes its competitive events going into the culminating tournaments of its season that began in mid-September. Over the course of the last two weekends, the Debate Society has offered a glimpse of the possibility of record-setting performances at it national championship tournaments in March (debate) and April (individual events), and the Debate Society has earned over 48 different competitive awards in the last two weeks (see below). Among the highlights, the Debate Society qualified a second team to the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (a prestigious qualification-based national tournament), qualified 23 events (a school record) to individual events nationals, and solidified it standing among the top 10 universities and colleges participating in parliamentary debate for the 3rd consecutive year (as well as placing itself within striking distance of its first top 5 finish in team history).

Sunset Cliffs Classic (Feb. 13-14)

Over President’s Day weekend, the team set the tone for a record breaking February by finishing third in University Sweepstakes at the Sunset Cliffs Classic held at Pt. Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA. In addition, freshman Maria DeMarco and Morgan Vanderveen qualified to the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, and, collectively, the team turned in a performance that will assure it finishes among the top 10 universities and colleges in the National Parliamentary Debate Association for the 2015-2016 season.  The full list of results include:

Overall Awards

3^rd Place – University Sweepstakes

2^nd Place – Top Overall Individual Events Competitor – Maria DeMarco

Debate Awards

2^nd Place – Open Parliamentary Debate – Morgan Vanderveen and Maria DeMarco

Quarterfinalists – Open Parliamentary Debate – Braden Hooton and Jose Soto

Semifinalists – Junior Parliamentary Debate – Shad Wojciechowski and Daniel Ybarra

3^rd Place Speaker – Junior Parliamentary Debate – Shad Wojciechowski

8^th Place Speaker – Open Parliamentary Debate - Maria DeMarco

Individual Event Awards

1^st Place – Communication Analysis – Maria DeMarco

1^st Place – Extemporaneous Speaking – Shad Wojciechowski

1^st Place – Persuasive Speaking – Maria DeMarco

1^st Place – Poetry Interpretation – Jose Soto

2^nd Place – Informative Speaking – Maria DeMarco

4^th Place – Informative Speaking – Morgan Vanderveen

5^th Place – Extemporaneous Speaking – Braden Hooton

American Forensics Association District Qualifying Tournament (Feb. 20-21)

Building on the success at Pt. Loma, this past weekend (Feb. 20-21), the team participated in the district-qualifying tournament for the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament held at the University of Utah. At the conclusion of the tournament, 13 students qualified 23 events to the National Championships to be held in Gainesville, Florida during the first weekend of April.  With this result, the team topped its performance last year by qualifying 20 percent more events than in 2015 and setting a University of Utah record for the largest number of events qualified to the tournament. The full list of results include: 

American Forensics Association District Qualifying Tournament, Part 1

1^st Place – After Dinner Speaking - Yennhi Hoang

1^st Place – Communication Analysis - Maria DeMarco

1^st Place – Informative Speaking - Morgan VanderVeen

2^nd Place – Communication Analysis - Saige Miller

2^nd Place – Extemporaneous Speaking  - Skyler Hektner

2^nd Place – Impromptu Speaking - Skyler Hektner

3^rd Place – After Dinner Speaking -  Jay Meza

3^rd Place – Informative Speaking - Averie Vockel

4^th Place – Communication Analysis - Shad Wojciechowski

4^th Place – Impromptu Speaking  - Jay Meza

4^th Place – Impromptu Speaking - Kennedy Clayton

4^th Place – Program Oral Interpretation - Shaylee Tulane

5^th Place – After Dinner Speaking - Jesse Hedin

5^th Place – Extemporaneous Speaking - Braden Hooton

6^th Place – Extemporaneous Speaking  - Jesse Hedin

7^th Place – Extemporaneous Speaking - Sydnee Spencer

American Forensics Association District Qualifying Tournament, Part 2

1^st Place – After Dinner Speaking – Yennhi Hoang

1^st Place – Communication Analysis – Saige Miller

1^st Place – Informative Speaking – Morgan VanderVeen

1^st Place – Program Oral Interpretation – Jose Soto

2^nd Place – Communication Analysis – Maria DeMarco

2^nd Place – Extemporaneous Speaking – Skyler Hektner

2^nd Place – Informative Speaking – Averie Vockel

3^rd Place – Communication Analysis – Shad Wojciechowski

3^rd Place – Impromptu Speaking – Skyler Hektner

4^th Place – After Dinner Speaking – Jay Meza

4^th Place – Extemporaneous Speaking – Sydnee Spencer

4^th Place – Persuasive Speaking – Van Le

5^th Place – After Dinner Speaking – Jesse Hedin

5^th Place – Dramatic Interpretation – Shaylee Tulane

5^th Place – Impromptu Speaking – Jay Meza

5^th Place – Prose Interpretation – Daniel Ybarra

6^th Place – Impromptu Speaking – Alex Cadena

7^th Place – Persuasive Speaking - Gabi Piril

 

We congratulate everyone on the team and wish them luck over the next two months of competitions.