The UCA Debate Team recently made an excellent showing recently at the Boosier Parrish Community College debate tournament with four competitors going a combined 16?8 and advancing two UCA competitors to octofinals.
Jonathan Welk, a junior Political Science major, went 5?1 in his first collegiate debate competition and advanced to octofinals. Chris White, a freshman Political Science major, went 4-2 and advanced to octofinals. Both lost their octofinal rounds to strong competition but led the way for an impressive performance by UCA in the Novice Division. Among schools competing in the Novice division, UCA finished 3rd out of 11 schools.
Also doing well at the tournament were sophomore Justin Lowery, who went 4?2 and narrowly missed qualifying for octofinals, and freshman Casey Goudy, who had a 3-3 record.
The overall winning record builds on two excellent outings late in the fall semester. Goudy advanced all the way to semifinals in the Novice division with a 3?3 record at the Mississippi College tournament. Kenneth Savage and White had 3?3 records, with Savage narrowly missing a qualifying spot in quarterfinal round. Goudy and Savage finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in speaker rankings. Also competing were Varsity debaters Jerry Garner, who had a 4?2 record, and Lewis Wharton, with a 3?3 record.
The UCA debate team is coached by Anthony McMullen and adjunct instructor Mark Lowery. The debate team is an approved university activity of UCA’s Department of Speech and Public Relations.The debate team also had a fine performance at the Lousiana State University ? Shreveport tournament late last fall. UCA?s performance ranked them overall with the first place finish in the professional/open division and by advancing one team to quarterfinals in team competition.
UCA Debate co-coach Anthony McMullen won the Open Division in IPDA debate by posting a 3?3 record in preliminary rounds and then by dispatching his opponents in his quarterfinal, semifinal and final match-ups. The Open Division is a division that includes debaters who have earned their undergraduate and/or graduate degrees and is commonly made up of university debate coaches and other professionals.
Also having a successful tournament was the team of Lewis Wharton and Chris White who advanced to the quarterfinals in the Team Division of IPDA with a 4?1 record. They lost on a 2-1 decision to Henderson State University. Not advancing to quarterfinals was the UCA team of Jerry Garner and Kenneth Savage with a 2?3 record respite Garner ranking as the 7th ranked speaker of the 38 debaters in the tournament.
In the individual IPDA competition, varsity division debater Jerry Garner went 3?3 and Lewis Wharton finished as the 3rd ranked speaker despite several tough losses to ranked competitors. Novice debaters Kenneth Savage, Chris White and Casey Goudy all went 3?3 and narrowly missed breaking to octofinals.
Out of 37 schools competing at the LSUS tournament in various divisions of debate, the UCA Debate Team ranked tenth overall in debate sweepstakes points. The LSUS tournament was the largest invitational tournament in IPDA history with 105 competitors.
IPDA promotes public forum debate, a format that uses public speaking skills and logic to build persuasive argumentation aimed at a general audience. IPDA (www.ipdadebate.org) focuses on enhancing education, rhetorical skill building and the development of fellowship. It is meant to apply critical thinking and oratorical skills in developing persuasive arguments with real-world applications on a broad range of interesting and timely topics.
