Debate Team Making Its Mark Nationally
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2000
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Debate Team Making Its Mark Nationally
The California State University, Chico Debate program is establishing itself as one of the most competitive in the nation. The National Debate Tournament Association recently released its rankings, listing Chico as 12th in the nation.
The team scored a big win over #1 ranked Catholic University at the November 17-20 Wake Forest University Tournament in North Carolina. The team of James Hebert and Jeremy Bowers scored wins over both the Harvard team and the Catholic University team at the prestigious tournament. The wins will likely improve Chico’s ranking.
All teams with aspirations of winning the national tournament (held in March) attend the Wake Forest Tournament, the largest tournament of the year.
Closer to home, the team of Cyndy Rupp and Michelle Choat won the November 19 Butte Roadrunner Invitational with an undefeated record. Paul Freeman and Rebecca Anderson each won individual outstanding speaker awards.
Kristina Schriver, adviser to the Debate Team, said, “Since it is expensive to attend, we send our championship level teams to large national tournaments and send less experienced teams to regional tournaments.”
Smaller tournaments, such as the invitational, also count toward national rankings as long as they are sanctioned by the national organizations. Over 100 universities are part of the National Debate Tournament’s rankings.
The Debate team will take a short break for the holidays and will resume travel in January to Kansas City, where they will compete in tournaments at William Jewell College and the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
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