The UCA Debate Team finished its strong 2008-09 season by advancing two competitors to semifinals, three competitors to octo-finals and one to double octo-finals at the national tournament as well as finishing fourth overall for their season-long performance.
In its second year of existence, the team was recognized for finishing fourth in overall season-long success that consisted of third place finishes overall in the Open and Novice divisions and fifth in the Varsity division. Highlighting the season-long success was a second place finish and third place speaker award by UCA Debate co-coach Mark Lowery in the Open division, a seventh place finish in the Novice division by senior accounting major Kristen Qandah and a ninth place finish in the Varsity division by senior speech and public relations major Ashley Hale. Also winning a second place season-long award in Team IPDA competition was the team of Hale and Jerry Garner, a sophomore history major. Season-long awards were compiled by counting the results of the top four UCA competitors in each division at the top six points-earning tournaments.Capping off the successful year, the team competed at the IPDA Nationals tournament held at Boosier Parish Community College and finished in fourth place of the twenty colleges competing. Just finishing four points out of third place, the team was led by the semifinalist finishes of Lowery in Open division and senior philosophy major Drew Ayelsworth in Novice division. Also contributing strong finishes were varsity octo-finalist Hale, novice octo-finalists Clermon Acklin and David Saterfield and varsity double-octo finalist Edie Hamby. Finishing just out of eliminations rounds with very competitive 5
