McKendree Speech and Debate Opens Its Season Strong
(LEBANON, Ill., September 26, 2014) - The McKendree University speech and debate team opened its competitive season in strong fashion, taking home several awards last
weekend at two tournaments.
Seventeen schools attended the University of Indianapolis speech tournament including
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ohio University and Purdue University.
Representing McKendree were seniors Rebecca Blake, Josh Fleming and Spencer Marcum;
sophomores Katie Reining and Taylor Rossi; and first-years Emeri Farnam, Briar North
and Hannah Zickefoose.
Marcum won first place in programmed oral interpretation, while also taking sixth
in both prose and drama. Fleming took second in programmed oral interpretation, while
Zickefoose received third place and the top novice award in the event. Blake finished
second in after dinner speaking. Reining received fifth place in communication analysis,
while Rossi was awarded sixth place and top novice in poetry. Farnam took sixth place
and top novice in duo. The duos of Blake-Marcum, Farnam-Zickefoose and Blake-Fleming
won second, fifth and sixth place, respectively. McKendree also took third place as
a squad at the tournament.
Twenty schools attended the William Jewell College debate tournament including Whitman
College, the University of Colorado and Texas Tech. Representing McKendree at William
Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., were sophomore Mary Makarishcheva and first-years
Alex Baldwin, Elizabeth Graham, David Junge, Adam Kaul and Gage Simmons.
The junior team of Kaul and Makarishcheva just missed advancing to varsity elimination
rounds but did advance to the junior final round, where they took second place. Makarishcheva
was also the second speaker in the junior division.
Competing at the University of Indianapolis recently were McKendree speech team members Taylor Rossi, Emeri Farnam and Hannah Zickefoose (front row); Briar North, Spencer Marcum, Rebecca Blake, Katie Reining and Josh Fleming (back row).
McKendree University debaters Elizabeth Graham, Mary Makarishcheva, Adam Kaul, Alex Baldwin and Gage Simmons participated in the William Jewell College tournament.
