UCA Debate and Forensics continued its season by earning a second-place overall finish at the Red River Swing, held at Louisiana State University in Shreveport on October 27-29, 2017. The team participated against students from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
The team was represented by 15 UCA students: seniors Russell Holley, Hayden McCormick, Leia Smith, and J.B. Wells; junior Dalton Cook; sophomores Jacob Holland, Emily Pavlovic, Marco Ramirez, Wayd Risner, Elaina Taylor, and Autumn Wilson; and freshmen Mason Duran, Greta Hacker, Cristian Mendez and Anna Stroud.
Smith was the tournament runner-up in the Professional Division. She was also recognized as the second-best speaker in division.
Cook, Holland, Risner, Taylor and Wells competed in the Varsity Division. Wells was the third seed in the elimination rounds and reached the quarterfinals. Cook, Holland and Risner each had 3-3 preliminary round records but missed reaching the elimination rounds.
Holley, Ramirez, Stroud and Wilson were in the Junior Varsity Division. Wilson reached the semifinal round in her first collegiate IPDA tournament. Holley and Stround reached the octafinal and quarterfinal rounds, respectively.
Duran, Hacker, McCormick, Mendez and Pavlovic participated in the novice division, with both Duran and Pavlovic reaching the elimination rounds.
Finally, Holland, Ramirez and Stroud participated in two individual event (IE) tournaments at the Red River Swing. Holland received second place in the individual event sweepstakes at both IE tournaments as well as for the overall tournament (combining performance in both debate and IEs). His performance includes finalist ranks in six events. Ramirez reached the finals in Prose Interpretation and Impromptu Speaking and placed second in Communication Analysis. Stroud reached the finals in both Prose Interpretation and Dramatic Interpretation.
In addition to the second-place overall finish, the team ranked second in debate sweepstakes, third in IE sweepstakes for both halves of the tournament, and first in overall sweepstakes for the second half of the tournament.
UCA Debate and Forensics next competition is at the Sooner Showdown at the University of Oklahoma. They will end the semester of competition at the Festival of Lights Tournament at Northwestern State University on Nov. 17-19.