February 04, 2013

Lewis & Clark Debate wins Pacific Lutheran tournament

The team of McKay Campbell (CAS ‘14) and Emily Tribble (CAS ‘15) won the third debate tournament of the year for Lewis & Clark.

The team of McKay Campbell (CAS ‘14) and Emily Tribble (CAS ‘15) continued the successful season for the Lewis & Clark forensics team by winning the Betsy Karl Invitational, held February 2-3 at Pacific Lutheran University. The victory was the third parliamentary debate tournament win of the year by the Lewis & Clark squad.

Campbell and Tribble, who started debating together just one month ago after taking semesters away from campus, won six debates in a row to claim the championship. In the final round, they defeated the University of Washington on a unanimous decision. This was the first collegiate tournament championship for either debater. Both Campbell and Tribble, along with Benjamin Mann (CAS ‘14) were named among the top six individual debaters at the tournament.

The success at PLU followed a strong weekend for the Pioneers at the Northwest Forensic Conference tournament held at Western Washington University January 25-27. At that tournament, Mann advanced to final rounds in five individual events, including a first place finish in prose interpretation with Tyler Janzen (CAS ‘13) finishing third. Also, the Lewis & Clark parliamentary debate team of Joe Hykan (CAS ‘13) and Emily Halter (CAS ‘14) were named the top two individual debaters at the tournament, with Hykan placing second and Halter placing first. Halter and Hykan were rewarded for a successful season so far with an invitation to the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, open only to the top parliamentary debate teams in the nation.

“The past two weekends are a testament to the depth of talent and dedication that exists in the Lewis & Clark forensics program” said Joe Gantt, director of the forensics program. “I am exceptionally proud of McKay and Emily for breaking through and getting their first tournament win, and the squad as a whole has had very strong performances over the past two weeks. We are positioning ourselves well to compete at the highest levels at nationals in March.”

The forensics team next travels to Whitman College for a tournament to be held February 15-17 before hosting the district tournament for individual events on February 22.