On September 24th and 25th, the Lafayette Forensics Society traveled to Bowling Green, Ky for a debate tournament at Western Kentucky University. This tournament was the season opener for the team and hopefully is a sign of things to come.

Sophomore, Zoe Staum, finished her six preliminary rounds with a 4-2 record. That was good enough to seed her 8th out of the 44 debaters entered in the tournament. The top 16 advanced to the single elimination rounds. She defeated the 9th seed from Truman State University in the first elimination round on a 3-0 decision. That set up a rematch in the quarterfinal round against the top seeded debater from Hillsdale College, whom had defeated Zoe in round six. Zoe advanced to the semi-finals on a 2-1 decision where she faced another debater from Hillsdale. She won again, which set up a final round against Myra Milam from Truman State University. In the final round, Zoe was named the winner on a 2-1 decision, marking Zoe’s first victory in a final round for Lafayette.

Extra congratulations are in order, as the final round was one of the first in recent memory which featured two female debaters. Both are sophomores and should make their mark on debate for years to come. Junior, Joshua Geesey also attended the tournament.