For the ninth time in ten years, the Lewis & Clark speech/debate team has earned the Gold medal award from the Northwest Forensics conference for outstanding overall performance as a squad.
The LC squad traveled to Longview, WA for the Dugaw Smelt Classic, held January 31-February 2 on the campus of Lower Columbia College. All told, nineteen team members earned advancement to elimination rounds, the highest number of students advancing for LC at a single tournament since 2022. The gold designation recognizes season-long success across multiple NFC tournaments designated as championship events.
The tournament weekend started with individual speaking events. Twelve students advanced in speech events, also a recent program high point. Miri Mason (’25) and Katie Jo Furrer (’27) each won championships in Junior Prose and Junior ADS, respectively. The following students also advanced to elimination rounds:
- Alana O’Grady (’27) - 2nd Dramatic Interp, 5th After Dinner Speaking
- Freya Steed (’28) - 2nd After Dinner Speaking
- Sam Rudderow (’26) - 3rd Communication Analysis
- Riley McGinley (’27) - 3rd Extemporaneous Speaking, 6th Editorial Commentary
- Lewis Eibner (’27) - 3rd Prose Interp
- Ivy Ferdowsian (’28) - 4th Junior Informative Speaking
- Sol Camper (’26) - 4th Poetry
- Josh Nguyen (’26) - 5th Program Oral Interp
- Zane Emerson (’26) - 6th After Dinner Speaking
- Mia McGauley (’28) - 7th Editorial Commentary
As the tournament shifted to debate events, LC’s momentum continued to build. In British Parliamentary debate, Isabella Moore (’26) and Maltin Tocani (’25) won the tournament championship, their second win in Northwest Forensics Conference designated tournaments after also winning the Steve Hunt Classic at home in October. Khyaan Choksi (’28) and Elise Fischer (’28) added a second place in junior BP, while Tanvi Shukla (’27) and Na’ama Shuall (’28) were finalists.
In IPDA debate, LC also had an incredibly strong performance. Six students advanced to elimination rounds, a program record. Emerson, Rudderow and Steed all advanced to open quarterfinals alongside junior quarterfinalist Jayden Steinberg (’27); Mason and Furrer advanced to open octofinals.
Additionally, the following debaters were recognized as outstanding individual speakers:
- Shukla, 2nd speaker, Junior BP
- Rudderow, 3rd speaker, Open IPDA
- Shuall, 3rd speaker, Junior BP
- Moore, 4th speaker, Open BP
- Choksi, 5th speaker, Junior BP
- McGinley, 5th speaker, Open IPDA
- Steinberg, 6th speaker, Junior IPDA
- Ferdowsian, 8th speaker, Junior IPDA
The LC squad also received recognition among the top three schools for season long honors in both speech and debate competition.
Director of speech/debate Joe Gantt said of the performance, “This was an amazing weekend of competition graciously hosted by our friends at Lower Columbia College. It was one of the first times that we’ve had nearly our entire team competing this year, and was wonderful to see so many students performing at a high level. Nineteen students in elimination rounds is incredible, and our students deserve credit and recognition for the hard work they put in to get to this point, which led to overall team honors as well.”
Gantt also was recognized at the tournament with the NFC’s Judge Educator Award, an annual award given to a member of the conference who has made a positive impact on the community as a whole.
The LC squad will rest for a weekend before next attending tournaments at Northwest Nazarene in Nampa, ID and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
