NEWS

Front row left to right: Maura Yeagle, Leah Hanna, Rachel Madore, Katie McKenzie Back row left to right: Tristan Stround, Nate Foster, Estevan Garcia, Seth McReynolds, Cody Kitchens, Jake Bryant, Charlie McBride.

Louisiana Tech’s Debate Team earned second place in debate and overall sweepstakes at the October LSU-S competition.

Estevan Garcia and Maura Yeagle were first in team debate preliminary rounds with a perfect 5-0 record, the only 5-0 team in the meet. Also, the pair finished quarterfinalists in out-rounds. Seth McReynolds and Nate Foster were quarterfinalists in team debate, and McReynolds was third place speaker.

In individual events, Rachel Madore, Charlie McBride, and Leah Hanna each broke to finals in their individual events. Hanna took first in After Dinner Speaking, second in Communication Analysis, third in Prose, and second in the Pentathlon award. She was also a Pilot Award recipient and competed in both debate and individual events. She was top novice in Communication Analysis and After Dinner Speaking.

Madore was second in Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking in the first half and second half of the individual event competitions.

She also received a Pilot Award. McBride was fifth in Extemporaneous Speaking and third in Impromptu. McBride was top novice in Impromptu Speaking.

In Individual Debate, Hanna, McBride, Madore, Yeagle, and Megan Smith, the coach of the team, all broke to out-rounds. Madore, Yeagle, Hanna, and Smith all won speaker awards. Smith was first place speaker in the professional division and a semifinalist.

This fall as a team, Tech co-hosted a tournament at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Hanna and Katie McKenzie broke to out-rounds and were both semifinalists.

The team traveled to Forth Worth the final weekend of October and finished second place in the TCU Tournament. Hanna and Madore were semifinalists, and Madore was second place speaker. In individual events, Madore was a finalist in Extemporaneous Speaking.