Lewis & Clark brings home hardware in speech and debate’s return to Linfield
The L&C team advanced several speech and debate categories to finals and outrounds at a tournament hosted by Linfield University from November 15-17. This is the first time students had the opportunity to compete in-person at this tournament since 2019.
For the first time since 2019, the L&C team competed in-person at Linfield University’s Mahaffey Memorial in McMinnville. Due to COVID-19 and campus factors, the oldest tournament in the Pacific Northwest was forced to take place online for the last four years.
Students competing in speech events successfully qualified for the National Forensics Association tournament set to take place in Detroit this April. Zane Emerson (’26) walked away with a runner up trophy in After Dinner Speaking and fifth place in Extemporaneous Speaking. Lewis Eibner (’27) was named runner up in Persuasion and placed fifth in Duo Interpretation with his partner Riley McGinley (’27). Alana O’Grady (’27) took home fourth in Prose. Freya Steed (’28) achieved fifth in After Dinner Speaking while Katie Jo Furrer (’26) advanced to JV finals in After Dinner.
IPDA debaters brought home impressive accolades as Riley McGinley won the championship speaker award and broke to quarterfinals. The team’s first year students excelled with Mia McGauley (’28) debating in octofinals and Ivy Ferdowsian (’28) making it to JV semifinals.
In British Parliamentary Debate, partners Isabella Moore (’27) and Maltin Tocani (’25) made the semifinals. Khyaan Choski (’28) and Elise Fischer (’28) were JV finalists. Maltin was awarded seventh speaker. In the JV division for top speaker, Khyaan was granted third and Elise finished in ninth place.
Collectively, L&C speech and debate placed third overall in division one sweepstakes.
With December rapidly approaching, the team will finish the semester with tournaments in Oregon and Washington state. Updates will be regularly posted on the team’s Instagram page: @lc.speechdebate.
