NPDA Championship, U.S. Air Force Academy

The Point Loma debate team just returned from the National Parliamentary Debate Association Championship, hosted by the U. S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. PLNU was awarded the 4th Place Sweepstakes Award for the year long sweepstakes race, which attempts to rate the relative success of each college and university participating in NPDA, the nation's largest intercollegiate debate association, throughout the year comparing results from each tournament attended. The list of the top twenty schools are shown below.
This accomplishment is quite a testament to this year's team, one of the youngest we have had in many years. Only one of our debaters is in his third year of college debate. All of the others are in their first or second year competing in intercollegiate debate. Most of these debaters had no high school debate experience before arriving at Point Loma.
At the National Championship we competed with four two person teams. The team of Caitlyn Burford and Katie Lucas, won five of their preliminary rounds and advanced to the elimination rounds. They won their first elimination round and dropped in the second to one of the top teams in the nation, Washburn University. The teams of Daniel Nadal and Jaimee Wanta, and Grant Beeson and Chris Gutierrez won four of their preliminary rounds missing the break to elimination rounds by only one loss. David Kruckenberg and Leia Larson won three rounds and also failed to advance.
These debaters and those that were not able to attend the National Championship worked hard all year and represented PLNU well in this academic environment. We are excited to know that many will be returning next year. Please refer any stand out students you know of who might be interested in becoming involved on the team.next year to me. We are also excited about the potential recruits we may be bringing to Point Loma. Special thanks to the coaches and alumni that helped so much all year.