UM Debate Club
The Communication Studies debate team attended the 95th Annual Mahaffey Memorial Tournament at Linfield University in November. This tournament, one of four designated each year in the Northwest Forensics Conference (NFC) was the largest conference the team has attended this year. As they competed against two and four year higher education programs from across the northwest this team truly held their own.
Colby Suko-Clark got first place in Junior Extemporaneous Speaking. He is a freshman, double majoring in Political Science and Journalism. Owen Carpenter got second place in Junior IPDA Debate. He is also a Political Science major in his first year at UM. Ethan Andersch, Club President, ranked top ten out of over 40 competitors in Open Impromptu Speaking. He is a junior double majoring in Physics (with Astronomy) and Political Science.
Many members of the team were highly competitive, and missed moving on to the final round by only a point or two. All seven competitors on the team came away with at least one debate win under their belt this tournament, which was quite impressive given how much talent and experience from throughout the region turned out for the tournament.