McKendree Speech and Debate Opens Season with 2nd Place Finish

(LEBANON, Ill., September 26, 2017) — The McKendree University speech and debate team opened its season with stellar performances at two elite tournaments. McKendree students took second place in debate at William Jewell College and reached finals in two events at Western Kentucky University.

Sixteen colleges and universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, Rice University and the University of Minnesota, attended William Jewell College’s debate tournament on Sept. 15-17. Representing McKendree were seniors Alex Baldwin, Beth Graham, Kaitlyn Hutchison and Gage Simmons; junior Adeja Powell; sophomore Virginia Parkinson; and first-years Mitch Deleel, Chandler Flesch, John Hilmes, Aaron Mattoon, Mackenzie Meni and Rebecca Postula.

Baldwin and Simmons posted a 5-2 record in prelims. After defeating Washburn University in octofinals, they dispatched two teams from Texas Tech in quarterfinals and semifinals. They lost in finals to the University of California at Berkeley, finishing in second place. Meni and Powell also advanced with a 4-3 record, finishing in 17^th place. Graham and Hutchison went 3-4, just missing the break to elims. Finally, Deleel and Postula advanced to novice semifinals, finishing third. Baldwin and Simmons took 12^th and 17^th speaker, respectively. As a squad, McKendree took fourth place.

Eleven colleges and universities, including the University of Alabama, Truman State University and Wayne State University, attended Western Kentucky University’s speech tournament on Sept. 24. Representing McKendree were senior Emma Webster and juniors Aliyah Smith and Andrew Wagner. Wagner advanced to finals in two events, impromptu speaking and informative speaking. He took fourth place in impromptu and fifth in informative.

McKendree will compete at Southwest Baptist University on Oct. 6-7.

 

Representing the McKendree University debate team at William Jewell College were:

front row, Mitch Deleel, Kenzie Meni, Adeja Powell, Beth Graham, Lance Allen; second row, Rebecca Postula, Kaitlyn Hutchison, Chandler Flesch, John Hilmes; third row, Virginia Parkinson, Alex Baldwin, Gage Simmons, Aaron Mattoon; back row, Brent Nicholson and Zach Schneider.

 

McKendree University speech team members Aliyah Smith, Emma Webster
and Andrew Wagner competed at Western Kentucky University.

 

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