Students from McKendree’s Speech and Debate Team Take Home Wins in Postseason Tournaments

(LEBANON, Ill., April 12, 2024) – Juniors Aaron Brown and Emma McIlhargie traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah with Speech and Debate Coach Brent Nicholson to compete at the National Parliamentary Debate Association’s Championship Tournament. They debated against teams from the University of California at Berkeley, Whitman College, Concordia University Irvine, the University of Utah and William Jewell College. Topics at the tournament ranged from sci-fi thrillers like planetary asteroid defense funding and artificial intelligence to intricate discussions of American housing policy and European Union energy policy.

The team of Brown and McIlhargie proved their mettle, producing a 5-3 record in preliminary debates to secure a place in the tournament’s elimination bracket. They finished in the Sweet 16 round against the nation’s number-two ranked team from Whitman College.

Junior Alexandra Walthes and sophomore Gracie Vincent made the trip to Chicago with Director of Speech and Debate Joe Blasdel to represent McKendree at the National Speech Championship. They competed in rounds against students representing the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, California State University and many more.

Walthes made quarterfinals appearances in both Poetry and Impromptu. Vincent was featured in the Novice Showcase for Prose. Walthes’s poetry explores how small towns can create and enforce restrictive social norms, while Vincent’s prose tells the story of a teenage girl with obsessive compulsive disorder.

“Congratulations to Aaron, Alexandra, Emma and Gracie on an excellent start to the postseason,” said Joe Blasdel. “These results speak to the work these students have done over the course of this year, and we look forward to seeing them and the rest of the team compete at our first national tournaments this April.”

 

-McK-