On March 13th, seven schools came to Lafayette for one of the last warm-ups before nationals.  Lafayette was joined by the Ohio State University, Otterbein College, Ithaca College, Plymouth State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the national champions, Western Kentucky University for a six round NFA-LD tournament held in Pardee Hall.

After the preliminary rounds, the tournament seeded 8 debaters into the single-elimination quarterfinal round.  Of those eight, FOUR were Lafayette debaters.  Since it is NCAA tournament season, I’ll run down the bracket for you:

In the final round, Teevrat Garg (senior) defeated Otterbein’s Jes Hansen on a 3-0 decision.  Teevrat affirmed the topic “the United States Federal Government should substantially reform domestic transportation infrastructure” by arguing that the US should build a “thruport” in Chicago to better facilitate the intermodal transfer of truck and rail shipments.  His argument hinges on the economic and safety ramifications included in improving the efficiency of freight transportation in the United States.

Lafayette has two more tune ups before travelling to Athens, Ohio for nationals at Ohio University.

On the weekend of February 20th and 21st the Forensics Society traveled to the Pennsylvania State Tournament at the California University of Pennsylvania and Northeast Regionals at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH.  Both groups returned with championships!

Four students traveled to the State Tournament with Director of Forensics Scott Placke and competed in both individual events and debate.  Senior, Kyle deCant finished in second place at the tournament as an individual.  He was named state champion in Extemporaneous Speaking!  He also finished second in Persuasive Speaking, second in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, third in Impromptu Speaking, and fifth in Dramatic Interpretation.  Kyle’s second place in Persuasion was good enough to qualify him to the Interstate Oratorical Association’s National Tournament.  Only two students from each state are chosen to compete at IOA, which is the longest running speech competition in the nation.  His speech is about the increasing suicide rates in the United States’ military and potential changes to how the military deals with mental health issues.

Senior, Teevrat Garg was named state champion in Impromptu Speaking and LD Debate.  He also finished 2nd in Extemporaneous Speaking.  Sophomore, Samantha Sangenito claimed Lafayette’s fourth state championship by winning Informative Speaking with her speech about the role of women in the United States military.  Sangenito also finished 3rd in Prose Interpretation and 3rd in LD Debate.  Senior, Sam Derrick just missed the finals in Impromptu Speaking, finishing 7th.  He also finished 4th in LD Debate.

Despite the small group of students attending the State Tournament the team finished in 3rd place, just 2 points behind 2nd place.

While some members were at the State Tournament, three debaters traveled with coach John Boyer to the Northeast Regional tournament in Manchester, NH.  Junior, James Hilbert finished with a 3-1 record in the preliminary rounds and was seeded 2nd going into the single-elimination quarterfinals.  Freshman, Justin Bortnick also managed a 3-1 record and was seeded 8th in the quarterfinals.  In quarterfinals, Bortnick lost to the tournament’s top seed while Hilbert defeated the 7th seeded competitor from Emerson College.  Hilbert advanced to semifinals where he again emerged victorious. That set up a final round against Tim Vaughan from St. Anselm College, the tournament’s top seed and the only person to defeat James in the preliminary rounds.  In finals, the debate centered around expanding the use of a traffic flow and congestion management tool called roundabouts.  Lafayette’s James Hilbert was arguing in favor of their expanded use, while his opponent from St. Anselm was forced to argue against roundabouts.  After a spirited debate in front of a panel of three judges, Hilbert was named regional champion!

Congratulations are deserved for all of the Lafayette students who captured these prestigious awards!

Seven students traveled with Director of Forensics, Scott Placke and the Debate Coach, John Boyer to Boston this past weekend.  Suffolk University was host to the University of Florida/Suffolk University swing tournament, held each year in Boston.  19 schools attended the tournament, including 6-time reigning NFA-LD debate champions, Western Kentucky University.

The first day of the tournament was hosted by the coaches from Suffolk University.  There were over 40 students entered in debate.  Lafayette was able to place 2 debaters in the quarterfinal round of the tournament.  Sophomore, Samantha Sangenito, lost in the quarterfinals.  Senior, Sam Derrick advanced all the way to the final round, where he defeated Logan Parke from Western Kentucky University to be name tournament champion.  In the Junior Varsity division, Joshua Geesey advanced to the final round, where he lost to Krystina Drasher of Ithaca College.  Kyle deCant accompanied his debating teammates to the tournament and competed in Individual Events.  Kyle finished 2nd in Persuasion and was named tournament champion in Extemporaneous Speaking.  The debate team finished first place in Debate Sweepstakes, defeating Western Kentucky University.

The coaches from the University of Florida took over the second day and Lafayette found itself even more successful.  In debate, three students advanced to the quarterfinals.  Sam and Samantha made return appearances, and Ryan Benjamin (after narrowly missing out on day one) punched his ticket to quarterfinals.  Ryan lost in quarterfinals, while Samantha advanced to the semifinals.  Sam Derrick again found himself in the final round of the tournament where he was again victorious, this time against Kelcy Hathaway from Western Kentucky University.  In JV, Joshua Geesey again lost in the final round, this time to Chris Tinsley from St. Anselm’s College.  The debaters weren’t the only ones to improve, Kyle deCant advanced to the finals in all three of his events, claiming 5th in Impromptu Speaking, 3rd in Persuasion and 2nd in Extemp.  The debaters again finished 1st in the team competition, while the team as a whole claimed 2nd place in the overall team competition for the weekend.

The tournament wins were Sam Derrick’s third and fourth tournament wins of the year and has been in finals 6 times this year. He has also won 3 out of the last 4 he has entered.  Joshua Geesey’s performance in JV was enough to earn him an invitation to the national tournament in April.  Joshua is the 10th debater to secure an invitation, which represents the most that Lafayette has ever qualified to the national tournament.

Eight students traveled to St. Louis, MO for the Webster University Gorlok Invitational this past weekend.  38 schools attended the tournament from all over the country.  Creighton University, Purdue University, Rice University, Truman State University, University of Nebraska, University of the Pacific, and Western Kentucky University.

In individual events, Samantha Sangenito advanced to the final round in Informative Speaking.  In the final round, Samantha finished in 1st place!

In debate, there were 78 debaters in the open division.  This was the largest open division ever in a regular season tournament.  Only nationals has ever been larger.  Lafayette placed three debaters in the top 16 at the tournament.  Teevrat Garg (5-1 record), James Hilbert (4-2) and Samantha Sangenito (4-2) all advanced to the octafinal round to place in the top 16.  Senior, Teevrat Garg was named 5th speaker at the tournament and Junior, James Hilbert was named 16th speaker at the tournament.

This weekend, Lafayette travels to Boston, MA for the Suffolk University tournament!  Wish us luck!

Senior, Kyle deCant and Freshman, Angela Wnek competed in Individual Events at the Ohio University Tournament in Athens, Ohio this past weekend. Both students had a successful tournament.

12 schools from around the country attended the tournament, including Western Kentucky University, Eastern Michigan University, University of Akron, Miami University of Ohio, the Ohio State University and the University of Notre Dame.

Kyle deCant advanced to the final round in Impromptu Speaking. Kyle took 2nd place in the final round!

Angela Wnek advanced to the final round in Dramatic Interpretation and Prose Interpretation. Angela placed 3rd in DI and 5th in Prose!

Those efforts were enough for Lafayette to finish 3rd place in the small-school sweepstakes division.

With school starting tomorrow, only one student was able to attend the SNAFU tournament hosted by West Chester University this weekend. Sophomore, Samantha Sangenito travelled to the event and finished 5th place in Informative speaking.

The Lafayette debate team had a very successful weekend at the most important tournament of the semester.  The Ohio State/Otterbein Holiday Frolic swing is often referred to as the Fall Championships.  It is one of the largest invitations that Lafayette travels to and the entire semester builds toward this tournament.  The tournament was attended by 30 schools, including The Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, University of Florida, University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, University of Nebraska, Creighton University, Truman State University and the reigning national champions, Western Kentucky University.

Ohio State hosted the first half of the swing.  At this tournament, 3 of the 4 Lafayette debaters advanced to the elimination rounds.  Unfortunately, James Hilbert (Junior) and Sam Derrick (Senior) were pitted against each other in the round of 16 as the 8th and 9th seeds respectively.  James advanced to quarterfinals as the higher seed.  Samantha Sangenito (Sophomore) debated Max Wiliger from The Ohio State University in the Round of 16 and advanced to the quarterfinals on a 2-1 decision.  In the quarterfinals, both Lafayette debaters advanced.  James defeated the tournament’s top seed, Christian Johns from Truman State University.  Samantha defeated Tariq Bruno from the University of the Pacific on a 3-0 decision.  In the semifinals, both Lafayette debaters were defeated by Will Chamberlain from the University of the Pacific and Western Kentucky University’s Sarah Spiker.  Placing two debaters in the semifinal round is no small feat, and Lafayette had the chance to close-out the final round of the tournament.

In individual events, Sangenito placed 6th in Informative Speaking and Angela Wnek (Freshman) placed 5th in Dramatic Interpretation.

The second half of the tournament was held at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.  Hilbert and Derrick both advanced to elimination rounds.  James Hilbert lost on a 2-1 decision in the first elimination round in a rematch with Christian Johns from Truman State.  Sam Derrick advanced to the final round defeating Valerie Melton from Missouri Southern, Todd Rainey from Western Kentucky, and Logan Parke from Western Kentucky along the way.  In the final round, Sam debated against Michael Johnson from Missouri Southern and prevailed on a 3-0 decision.  It is the biggest tournament that Sam has ever won, with 54 debaters entered in the tournament.  It represents one of the biggest wins in team history.

The debate team is done traveling for the semester and is off until late January when the IE team travels to West Chester and the debaters travel to Webster University in St. Louis.

Happy Holidays!