After a fourth-place showing at their season opener at Western Kentucky in September, the team prepped for what Ray called “their intensive October season.”
Competing the first three weekends in October, the Word brought home team trophies in all three tournaments.
At a tournament hosted Oct. 3 by George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, the six-person squad achieved a third-place team finish. Senior Taryss Mandt and juniors Alyssa Hager and Logan Spence brought home individual awards from the tournament.
The next weekend, the team traveled to the University of Kentucky, taking a primarily novice squad and placing second in Combined Individual Events and Debate Team Sweepstakes and third in Individual Events Team Sweepstakes.
Individual members brought home four tournament championships, and all six members claimed at least one trophy. Senior and novice member Sarah Hagan was crowned tournament champion in both Novice IPDA (International Public Debate Association) Debate and Duo Interpretation with Spence. Senior and varsity member Juliet Djietror brought home tournament championships in both Prose and Poetry Interpretation.
Spence, a junior varsity member, advanced to elimination rounds in all four of his events, placing first in Duo Interpretation and second or third in all other events. Freshmen Hunter Barclay and Rosaline Clark advanced to their first-ever college elimination rounds at the University of Kentucky, bringing home finalist trophies. Hagan, Eli Tilley, and Barclay were also crowned the top novices in their events.
Finally, at the University of Central Missouri on Oct.17, the team brought home a second-place finish out of 29 colleges and universities, only placing behind the 2014 Pi Kappa Delta national champions-the Great Debaters of Wiley College.
Highlights included Hager being crowned tournament champion in both Persuasive Speaking and Prose Interpretation and also receiving a second-place finish in After-Dinner Speaking. Mandt and Spence each advanced to finals in three of their events. Barclay, a novice, advanced to the finals of Impromptu Speaking, and senior DeVan Sample was a semifinalist in Prose Interpretation.
After a busy few weekends, the Thundering Word hosted the seventh-annual Chief Justice Invitational Tournament in memory of the late Marshall president, Dr. Stephen J. Kopp, on Halloween Weekend. While the varsity members prepared and ran the event, the three novice members competed in the two-day tournament and each brought home a trophy.
The highlight of the tournament was Barclay’s two tournament championships in both Novice Impromptu and Novice Extemporaneous Speaking. Barclay also advanced to final rounds in the varsity categories of his two other events. Barclay and Tilley were also selected among the top six speakers in IPDA Debate.
—————-
Photo: Pictured at the Kentucky tournament are, from left, the Thundering Word’s Rosaline Clark, Coach Danny Ray, Hunter Barclay, Sarah Hagan, Juliet Djietror, Eli Tilley, Victoria Ledford and Logan Spence.