By Alyssa Braver and Kaitlin Kinsella

ST. LOUIS, MO — It was the weekend before second semester started and instead of spending their last few precious days of break at home, the Lafayette College Speech and Debate team traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to compete in Webster University’s 2015 Gorlok Gala. The Gorlok is the University’s fictional mascot and has the paws of a cheetah, the horns of a buffalo, and the face of a Saint Bernard dog. The tournament is one of the most competitive of the year with 49 different colleges and universities attending from 22 states.

Representing Lafayette College in debate were senior Ryan Monahan (’14) and juniors Joseph “Jimmy “ Rothschild (’16), Vanessa Milan (’16), and Alyssa Braver (’16). Freshman Emily Carter (’18) also competed in the open division of debate, and this was her first time flying with the team! Coaches John Boyer and Kim Runnion traveled with the team as well, and they were instrumental in making the tournament run smoothly by helping to run the tabulation room and the ballot table respectively.

Joseph Rothschild competed for the first time this academic year after studying abroad in London last semester. Despite this time off from debate, he managed to make it to elimination rounds. After defeating Western Kentucky University’s Tyler Prochazka in octofinals, Joe advanced to quarterfinals. While Joe ended up losing to Western Kentucky’s Emma Collins, quarterfinals is still a remarkable feat. This is even more impressive given the fact that there were 56 competitors in the Lincoln Douglas open division of debate. Joe is now qualified for the National Forensic Association’s National Tournament in April. In addition, he received the 7th place speaker award.

The winning did not stop there. Senior Ryan Monahan also advanced to elimination rounds. After defeating The Ohio State University’s Sam Halter on a 3-0 decision in octofinals, he advanced to quarterfinals where he defeated Western Kentucky’s Carolyn Evans. This set up a semifinal round between Ryan and Purdue University’s Taylor Brewer. Ryan won in a 3-0 decision, making the team start to worry about whether they would catch their flight back to New-ark in time.

The other semifinal round was a closeout between Western Kentucky’s Mark Allseits and Emma Collins. Their coaches advanced Emma as the higher seed, setting up the final round between Ryan and Emma. While Ryan ultimately ended up losing the round, second place was still a victory for Lafayette as this is the best the team has done at the Gorlok in recent years. Ryan received the 9th place speaker award, and the team luckily all made it to their flight on time!

However, it wasn’t just the debaters who did well this tournament. Representing Lafayette College in speech was seniors Sharon Chen (’14) and Joe Arrieta (’14) and juniors Jennifer Bognar (’15), Cassidy Reller (’15), and Alyssa Braver (’15). Alyssa Braver competed in persuasion making her the only member of the team at this tournament to compete in both debate and speech. Senior Joe Arrieta competed in prose as did his teammate Jennifer Bognar who also competed in after dinner speaking. The team welcomed back Cassidy Reller, who had been studying abroad in Prague last semester. At his first tournament back Cassidy competed in impromptu, persuasion, and extemporaneous speaking. The team is glad to finally have everyone back and can’t wait to see what will happen the rest of this academic year!

One member of the speech team did exceptionally well at the Gorlock. Senior Sharon Chen, the President of Lafayette’s Speech and Debate Team, placed second in communication analysis and received an excellent award in informative. The Gorlock Tournament was extremely competitive and for Chen to receive an Excellent Award she had to be in the top 30% of competitors. Chen has been a great asset to this team. Early this month Chen represented Lafayette at West Chester University and earned the third place small school award all by herself. At that tournament she received first place in communication analysis and third place in persuasion. Chen continues to dazzle the team with her performances and also remains a great support system for the entire team showing how great of a president she is!

The Leopards will be resting up this weekend and preparing for a busy few weeks ahead. The speech team will be traveling to James Madison University in Virginia for February 6. The weekend after that the speech team has Pennsylvania’s annual state tournament. The team started off 2015 with a bang and can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings!