NCCFA Christian Colleges Nationals

While some were enjoying relaxing on the beach at tourist spots like Cabo San Lucas for Spring Break, the PLNU Speech and Debate team was winning several new National Championship titles. This past weekend (Friday March 13- Sunday March 15) NCCFA Christian College Nationals was held at Biola University. Point Loma won the top honors, First Place in the Overall Sweepstakes Division which considers all the different events, and also won First Place in Debate Sweepstakes – Large School Division, focusing only on debate events.

In Parliamentary Debate, the Point Loma win was so decisive (with PLNU teams capturing the top five Senior Division spots, virtually tying for First Place), the Tournament Director joked that the Senior Division was going to be renamed the Point Loma division. Five of the eight top senior teams advancing to Quarter Finals were all from PLNU, placing at least one PLNU team in each Quarter final round. Since in intercollegiate debate you never actually debate against your own teams, this left three actual quarter finals, all won by the Point Loma teams, meaning that the remaining five Point Loma teams now share the National Championship title from this Championship year end tournament (in what we call closing out the Semi Final round.)

In individual events Junior Danielle Lawson is now the National Champion in Informative Speaking Open Division for her speech on Millennials, as is Isaiah King in the Novice Division of After Dinner Speaking for his humorous speech or auto-ethnographic observations on race relations (“Black Ain’t Ghetto”). When accounting for students entered in multiple events and multiple genres three Point Loma students were honored. Chris Gutierrez won 6Th Place in the Senior Division, and in the Novice Division Kim Jensen won 10th Place, and Josh Irvine won 7th Place.

Our last major tournament will be NPDA nationals in two weeks at University of the Pacific . That organization considers all college in this format of intercollegiate debate throughout the country. PLNU is currently counted as the 5th Place team for the year long NPDA sweepstakes race, however that does not include the results yet from several recent tournaments where Point Loma has done well. It is possible that we may still move up once these events are entered.

While we are losing some important Seniors this year, we are excited about the potential recruits wanting to be a part of this strong program with a proven track record in the next few years. They are receiving a Bcc of this note as a shameless recruiting plug of course, as are our alumni charter members upon whom we rely for so much, from coaching and prayer support to financial contributions. Thank you for your continued encouragement and support.

 

Results from NCCFA Christian College Nationals

Parliamentary Debate (Senior): Five way tie for 1st (all Point Loma teams)

Top Speakers - Angela Compton 2nd, Caitlyn Burford 7th, Daniel Nadal 10th

• Angela Compton and Caitlyn Burford (6/0 in prelims, dropped no ballots throughout the whole tournament.)   
• David Kruckenberg and Danielle Lawson   
• MacLean Andrews and Brandon Walsh   
• Grant Beeson and Ian Sharples   
• John Morris and Daniel Nadal

Parliamentary Debate (Junior)

Top Speakers - Jayme Oswald, 4th

• Josh Irvine and Margaret Urfer – Quarterfinalists   
• Ben Powers and Jayme Oswald – Quarterfinalists

Parliamentary Debate (Novice)

Top Speakers - Reagan Pratt 1st, Ally Beardsley 7th

• Ally Beardsley and Reagan Pratt – Finalists/ 2nd place

Lincoln Douglas (Senior)

• David Kruckenberg – Finalist, 2nd Place   
• Ian Sharples- Semifinalist   
• Katie Lucas-Semifinalist   
• Chris Gutierrez – Quarterfinalist   
• Daniel Nadal-Quarterfinalist

Lincoln Douglas (Junior)

• Maclean Andrews- Finalist, 2nd Place   
• John Morris-Quarterfinalist

Individual Events

Chris Gutierrez   

• Open Impromptu, 3rd Place   
• Open Persuasion, 6th   
• Open Duo, 3rd

Josh Irvine   

• Novice Impromptu, 4th   
• Novice Extemp, 3rd

Angela Compton   

• Open Extemp, 2nd   

David Kruckenberg

• Open Extemp, Semifinalist
• Open After Dinner Speaking, 3rd Place

Danielle Lawson

• Open Informative, 1st Place
• Open Duo Interpretation with Chris Gutierrez , 3rd

Margaret Urfer

• Open Informative, 3rd

Isaiah King

• Novice After Dinner Speaking, 1st

Ally Beardsley

• Novice After Dinner Speaking, 3rd
• Novice Impromptu, Semifinalist

Kim Jenson

• Novice Impromptu, 6th
• Novice Programmed Oral Interpretation, 2nd

Jayme Oswald

• Novice Impromptu, Semifinalist

Ben Powers

• Novice Impromptu, Semifinalist

Brandon Walsh

• Open Impromptu, Semifinalist

Reader’s Theater : “Snow White and the Five Theologians” 2nd Place.