McKendree Speech & Debate Wins Big at Home and at Central Missouri

(LEBANON, Ill., October 27, 2017) — The McKendree University speech and debate team competed at its home debate tournament and at University of Central Missouri, taking 56 awards—including 11 first place finishes—between the two.

Ten colleges and universities, including the University of Texas, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Illinois attended McKendree University’s home tournament on Oct. 20-22. Representing McKendree were seniors Alex Baldwin, Beth Graham and Gage Simmons; junior Adeja Powell; sophomore Virginia Parkinson; and first-years Mitch Deleel, Chandler Flesch, Aaron Mattoon, Kenzie Meni and Rebecca Postula.

At the first half of the tournament, the team of Baldwin and Simmons as well as the team of Meni and Powell closed out the tournament, taking first and second place. Baldwin and Simmons posted a 3-1 prelim record and defeated teams from Cedarville University, Washburn University, and William Jewell College in elims. Meni and Powell went 2-2 and defeated teams from Appalachian State, Missouri Western, and Arkansas State in elims. Graham and Mattoon finished with a 3-1 record and defeated Washburn University in elims, finishing as quarterfinalists. Deleel and Postula took second place in the junior division. Baldwin, Postula, and Simmons took fourth, fifth and tenth place speaker, respectively. McKendree is not eligible for sweeps awards at its home tournament, but would have finished in first place.

At the second half of the tournament, Baldwin and Simmons posted a 6-0 record, finishing as semifinalists. The teams of Meni and Powell, as well as Graham and Mattoon, both went 4-2, and were quarterfinalists. Deleel and Postula defeated the University of Minnesota to take first place in the novice division. Baldwin, Simmons and Powell were the  first, second and seventh  place speakers, respectively. McKendree also would have placed first in team sweepstakes.

For the swing, Baldwin, Simmons, and Powell were the third, fourth and seventh place speakers. Postula was the top novice speaker. McKendree would have won overall sweepstakes if competing.

Twenty-one colleges and universities, including the University of Nebraska, Western Kentucky University, and Purdue University, attended the University of Central Missouri’s speech and debate tournament on Oct. 21-22. Representing McKendree were seniors Brett Hanna and Emma Webster; juniors Justin Fausz and Aliyah Smith; and sophomores Grace Alexander, Kate Maag, Lyndellia Mannie and Isa Scaturro.

At the first half, Smith won first place in programmed oral interpretation, as well as fourth place in poetry. Alexander took first place in after dinner speaking, along with sixth place in drama. Webster finished second in prose and fourth in drama, as well as third in duo with Wagner. Wagner also took third in persuasion, fourth in communication analysis, fourth in informative, and sixth in extemporaneous speaking. Scaturro won second place in after dinner speaking, while Maag and Hanna took fifth place in impromptu and after dinner speaking, respectively. Wagner finished second in individual sweepstakes, while McKendree took second in individual events sweepstakes and third in overall sweepstakes.

At the second half, Wagner won first place in persuasion and third place in impromptu, as well as fifth place in duo with Webster. Webster also placed third in drama and seventh in prose. Smith again won first place in programmed oral interpretation, along with third place in poetry and second in duo with Scaturro, who also finished in third place in after dinner speaking. Alexander won second place in after dinner speaking, as well as sixth place in extemporaneous speaking. Hanna finished in fourth place in after dinner speaking, as well as fifth place in prose, while Maag took fourth place in poetry. Wagner placed fourth in individual sweepstakes, while McKendree won overall sweepstakes and took second place in individual events sweepstakes.

McKendree placed second in individual event sweepstakes for the swing.

The team will compete at Wheaton College on Nov. 3-4.

 

Front row, Isa Scaturro, Kenzie Meni, Mitch Deleel, Justin Fausz, Brett Hanna, Andrew Wagner, Gage Simmons and Alex Baldwin; back row, Adeja Powell, Kate Maag, Rebecca Postula, Lyndellia Mannie, Aaron Mattoon and Grace Alexander.