Bevy of Awards at First Tournament Speak well of USU Debate Team

Despite their “novice” category, first-year members of the Utah State University Speech and Debate Team were adept at earning awards during their first conference tournament Oct. 7-9 at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore.

Competing against 38 college teams in 10 states, Naomi Hall was recognized as the top overall novice speaker at the tournament. Teammate Zoe Hall was first in the Novice Debate category,

Overall, in this first of three Northwest Forensic Conference tournaments, the USU team placed second overall, only coming in behind Boise. The team also walked away with a bevy of first, second and third prizes in many categories.

Individual winners were:

 Zoe Hall: first place in Novice Debate; fifth best overall Novice Speaker.

Chantelle Gossner:  second place in Novice Debate; third place in Novice Informative Speaking; fourth place in Novice Persuasive Speaking.

Naomi Hall: third in Novice Debate; top overall Novice Speaker; second in Novice Persuasive Speaking; fourth in Novice Informative Speaking.

Brayden O'Brien: third place in Junior Division Debate; sixth best overall Junior Debate Speaker.

Alex Hall: fourth place in Junior Division Debate; first in Junior Extemporaneous; fourth overall Junior Debate Speaker.  

Tanner Petersen: first in Senior Division Persuasive Speaking; first in Senior Division Extemporaneous; second in Senior Division Informative Speaking; fifth in Senior Division Impromptu; No. 2 overall speaker at the tournament.

KC Esplin: third place in Novice Impromptu Speaking; third in Novice Persuasive Speaking; and fifth in Senior After Dinner Speaking.

Garrett Smith: third in Senior Persuasive Speaking.

Novice division is for students in the first year of competition, junior division for students in their second year of competition and senior division for competitors in their third and fourth year of competition, said debate coach Tom Worthen.

 Worthen said USU’s team of eight — compared with more than 30 Boise State competitors — earned the highest percentage of awards of any school at the tournament.  In Speech, USU was recognized with second place in overall speech sweepstakes and second place overall in both speech and debate.