Sun Devil Debaters Achieve Excellence
The ASU Debate Team the debate team completed a stretch of 4 tournaments in the past month. In September, the team competed at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, while in early October the team headed to Ogden, UT to debate on the Weber State University campus. Most recently, 3 coaches took 11 debaters to the University of Las Vegas to compete with 100 teams from more than 30 schools. Students placed in every division of debate.
In the Novice Division, sophomore Rick Brody and first-year Mustafa Alam took 1st place. Rick was also the 3rd place novice speaker, while Mustafa finished 4th place. Mustafa has now won both novice division tournaments that he's attended this season.
In the Junior Varsity Division, sophomores Ethan Wheeler and Gunner Smith finished in 2nd place. Gunner and Ethan placed 3rd in JV at the Weber State tournament earlier this month, where Ethan was named Top Speaker. Last month, Gunner partnered with Mustafa to win the Novice Division in Kansas City.
In the Open Division, Seniors Rohit Rajan and Peter Chotras tied for 9th place out of 68 teams. Rohit was named the 11th best speaker out of a total of 136 contestants. In their previous competition at the Kansas City tournament last month, Peter and Rohit tied for 17th out of 114 teams. Rohit was named the 20th best speaker out of nearly 230 speakers at that tournament. Rohit and Peter were also invited to compete in the exclusive Val Browning Round Robin at the beginning of October, which featured 18 of the best teams in the country. Rohit also advanced to the round of 32 at the Weber State Invitational.
Izak Dunn was named the Assistant Director of the Year at the Bob Mukai Classic tournament, for his outstanding work with Arizona State Forensics.
ASU Speech Team Rocks Portland
Members of the of the ASU Speech Team added to their trophy collection this weekend after their latest competition in Portland. The team won 6 competitive speaking events as well as the overall team sweepstakes award in individual events competition. The tournament, held on the campuses of Lewis & Clark and Mt. Hood College, hosted 55 colleges and universities over the course of three days.
Junior James Qian, a returning national finalist, won the After Dinner and Extemporaneous speaking events. Senior Frankie Marchi won Poetry Interpretation, junior Paxton Attridge won Impromptu Speaking, and sophomore Kohinoor Gill won Informative Speaking. With their victories; Qian, Marchi, and Gill accomplished the rare feat of qualifying for the national tournament, to be hosted in April, in their first 3 competitions.
Sophomore Ben Steele and freshmen Abbey Toye, Stephanie Luigs, and Gabe Leon contributed to the Sun Devil victory through their strong performance in 9 out of the 27 total events ASU entered in the tournament.
Congratulations to ASU’s Speech Team!
At the season opener, the team won 7 competitive speaking events as well as the overall team championship at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Major General Harold “Pete” Todd Memorial Tournament.
Held on Colorado College’s campus in Colorado Springs, the tournament hosted 27 colleges and universities from across the nation in parliamentary debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and individual speech events.
Junior James Qian, a returning national finalist, led the Sun Devils by winning the Informative, Persuasive, Communication Analysis, Extemporaneous, and Impromptu speaking events. In turn, James was awarded the Nate Hewitt Memorial Award presented to the top overall speaker at the tournament. Senior Frankie Marchi, also a competitor on Arizona’s slam poetry team, won Poetry Interpretation and reached the final rounds of Prose, Program Oral Interpretation, and Dramatic Duo with Junior Paxton Attridge. Paxton’s victory in After Dinner Speaking completed a sweep of the limited preparation and platform speaking events by ASU. Additionally, sophomore Kohinoor Gill placed second in 3 speaking events and Ben Steele placed in 2 speaking events.
Overall, the Sun Devils brought 20 entries to the tournament and advanced 17 to final rounds. “It’s an impressive victory,” head coach Nick Butler commented, “This is the result of months of working over the summer in preparation for this year, and it’s clear that our students are motivated to improve on their Top 16 finish at the end of last season.”
The team’s next competition will be at Lewis & Clark College in Portland on October 9-12, the future site of the National Individual Events Tournament in April.