NPDA National Championship Lubbock, Texas

Our long debate season came to a successful conclusion this past weekend in Lubbock Texas, for the NPDA National Championship.  Point Loma Nazarene University once again finished in both the top ten schools around the nation for the tournament sweepstakes (Eighth Place) and in the top ten for the year long sweepstakes (also Eighth place), as shown below.  As you will note we compete against all sizes of schools.

The following four Pt Loma teams posted winning records at the National Championship to advance to the elimination rounds.  Very few other schools advanced as many as four teams at this tournament.

• Joel Day and Ben Kautzer - dropped in the third elimination round
• Chris Champine and LeAnn Wiley - dropped in the second elimination round
• Ashleigh Livingston and Carissa Phillips - dropped in the second elimination round
• Andrew Hoag and Dominique Marino - dropped in the first elimination round.

Even two of our first year debaters, Elly Garner and April Griffin managed to win four of their eight preliminary rounds and they almost advanced to the elimination rounds.  In their very first round they did manage to beat one of the heavy pretournament favorites to win the entire tournament.  For those of you enjoying March Madness, this would be akin to (or even beyond) a sixteen seed beating a number one seed in the NCAA Basketball Championships.
On behalf of the entire team we would again like to thank all the professors, staff, and administrators at Pt Loma for working with us throughout the season to help represent the school in this national academic forum.  My special thanks to the coaches Melissa Lazaro and Phil Rath, along with the many alumni who donated countless hours coaching and judging, many dollars and much prayer support.  Most of these students will either be graduating or studying abroad next year, but we are looking forward to an exciting new group of recruits to work with our returnees for another exciting season.
The only remaining tournament of note this year for us  is the AFA Individual Events Nationals beginning April 1st.  Only one student (Griffith Vertican) will be participating in this Championship, but he has qualified in four separate events (Persuasion, Informative, Impromptu, and Extemporaneous Speaking). 

Year Long Season Sweepstakes Race for Parliamentary Debate:

Tournament Sweepstakes Results for NPDA National Championship Tournament: