BY JOSEPH BLASDEL, PH.D.
Contributing Writer
The McKendree University speech and debate team opened its competitive season in strong fashion, taking home X awards last weekend at two tournaments.
Seventeen schools attended the University of Indianapolis speech tournament including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Ohio and Purdue University. Representing McKendree were seniors Rebecca Blake, Josh Fleming and Spencer Marcum; sophomores Katie Reining and Taylor Rossi; and first-years Emeri Farnam, Briar North, and Hannah Zickefoose.
Marcum won 1st place in programmed oral interpretation, while also taking 6th in prose and 6th in drama. Fleming took 2nd in programmed oral interpretation while Zickefoose received 3rd place and the top novice award in the event. Blake finished in 2nd place in after dinner speaking. Reining received 5th place in communication analysis, while Rossi was awarded 6th place and top novice in poetry. Farnam took 6th place and top novice in duo. The duos of Blake/Marcum, Farnam/Zickefoose, and Blake/Fleming won 2nd, 5th and 6th place, respectively. McKendree also took 3rd place as a squad at the tournament.
Photo credit: Joseph Blasdel, Ph.D.
Twenty schools attended the William Jewell College debate tournament including Whitman College, the University of Colorado and Texas Tech University. Representing McKendree at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. were sophomore Mary Makarishcheva and first-years Alex Baldwin, Elizabeth Graham, David Junge, Adam Kaul and Gage Simmons.
The junior team of Kaul and Makarishcheva just missed advancing to varsity elimination rounds but did advance to the junior final round, where they took 2nd place. Makarishcheva was also the 2nd speaker in the junior division.
McKendree will next compete at Loyola University in Chicago on Sept. 26-28.
