Cougar Classic Azusa Pacific University

Our PLNU speech and debate team spent the Fall Break competing at our first full service speech and debate tournament of the year.  The Pt Loma team competed against over 40 other colleges and universities from the North West to the South East and many points in between.  Led by returning veterans and a strong showing by the new class of recruits, PLNU came in Second Place overall in the four year university division, 20 some odd points behind a perennially strong Cal State Long Beach team, yet still managing to beat such formidable programs as Cal Berkeley, Northern Arizona University, The United States Air Force Academy , University of Florida, USC and UCLA.

Our debaters had a strong start to the year and I am very encouraged with many of the individual events which are almost ready for serious competition.  Of the 10 debate teams we entered, seven cleared to the elimination bracket, which is extremely difficult to accomplish.  One of our senior teams had a winning record but failed to advance on the tie breaker.  One of those teams went on to win their division.  Of particular note here is that nine of our award winners this weekend were first year college competitors, which speaks to the strength of the recruit class and the future potential for the team.  The novice team of Britton Dennis and Peter Gohman in their first ever debate tournament went undefeated in preliminary rounds, and finally lost on a split decision in the Quarter Finals of Novice debate. And the team of Kirsten Flewelling and Joel Day, who won the Junior Division, are both freshmen.

Special thanks to adjunct professor Becky Johnson and alum Janae Parker, in addition to volunteer coaches Loren Dahlquist and Nicolette Ward for helping us at the tournament.  Due to the lateness of our involvement in the tournament we did not return until about 2:00 a.m. this morning, so I hope you will forgive a few yawns and bleary looks from the debaters in your classes this morning, not to mention typos, grammar errors, or omissions on my part in this notice.  Thanks for your continued support.

 

Here are the specifics results:

 

Debate Results:

Senior Division Teams:

Troy Funk and Jay Selnick- Quarterfinalists

Brenden Garrett and Shannon Hutchison - Quarterfinalists

   

Junior Division Teams:

Kirsten Flewelling and Joel Day - First Place Team        

Ben Kautzer and Brett Stuart - Octafinalists

Andrew Hoag and Christina MacKinnon - Octafinalists

 

Novice Division Teams:

Britton Dennis and Peter Gohman - Quarterfinalists

Jordan Cherry and Mitch Houseman Octafinalists

 

Senior Division Debate Speaker Awards:

Shannon Hutchison - 11th Speaker

Brenden Garrett         12th Speaker

Junior Division Debate Speaker Awards: 

Kirsten Flewelling - 2nd Place Speaker

Joel Day - 6th Speaker

Christina MacKinnon - 14th Speaker

Brett Stuart - 18th Speaker

Andrew Hoag - 19th Speaker

 

Novice Division Debate Speaker:

Britton Dennis            2nd Place Speaker

Jordan Cherry            8th Place Speaker