The Speech and Debate team is preparing for nationals in Alabama after being crowned champions at the Oklahoma Interstate Forensics Association state tournament.
The team competed in the OIFA tournament, which was hosted Feb. 22-23 on campus, and won the overall competition, naming them state sweepstakes champions. Three members qualified for the American Forensics Association national tournament, which will be April 5-7 at the University of Alabama.
Tyler Patton, mass communications senior, will attend the tournament with a communications analysis speech. Blayne Childers, acting junior, will attend for poetry, dramatic interpretation and prose. Lauren Snare, finance/economics freshman, will attend with an informative speech. All three will represent the university at the tournament.
Dr. Joshua Young, director of forensics and assistant visiting professor of speech and debate, said he is pleased with how the team performed at the OIFA tournament.
“OCU has been consistently dominant at the state tournament, at least for the past two years,” Young said. “We get to host it, and we get to put in all this work, but then we also get to reap the benefits of seeing our students do so well in such a supportive community.”
Patton said he views the team’s success as a great accomplishment.
“We cleaned up pretty well,” he said. “This was one of the last tournaments of the season, so it got a lot of attention. It’s just really impressive that OCU could win a tournament like that.”
Two students claimed the only spots as representatives of the state at the Interstate Oratorical Association Tournament, which will be April 27-28 in Pennsylvania.
Kate Morton, music freshman, earned first place in persuasive speaking, and Abigail Banks, political science/economics/philosophy freshman, earned second place, qualifying both to represent Oklahoma at the tournament.
“The atmosphere was really competitive, but you could tell everyone was on top of their game and really trying hard, which I think, overall, is a really good thing. That pushes everyone to do their best,” Banks said.
Banks said people have offered their support and well wishes.
“Everyone wants us to do well at these tournaments and represent OCU in the best light possible,” she said.
The Speech and Debate team meets for practices three times a week as students prepare their pieces, work one-on-one with coaches and compete in practice events.
Young said the team has grown significantly, almost doubling in size since he became director in 2018.
“When I started last year, I think we had 10 students, and this year we started with around 20,” he said.
Patton said the team is growing, not just in size, but in strength.
“College tournaments are always pretty big,” Patton said. “OCU winning this tournament back-to-back, both as a team and as individuals, shows that we’re advancing as a program and becoming much stronger.”
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