Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
BOLIVAR, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University speech and debate team finished in eighth place among the 28 schools in attendance at the Red River Swing Tournament Nov. 5-6, at Louisiana State University Shreveport. The Bearcats were quite efficient given that they had the fifth smallest entry at the tournament.
Junior Chelsea Turner and her debate partner senior Jordan Hart reached the semi-finals of Varsity Parliamentary Debate. Hart brought home a third place trophy in Persuasive speaking and earned a sixth place finish in Communication Analysis. Freshman Matt Adams just missed reaching the Octafinals of Public Debate by a few speaker points. Hart's successes in individual events competition were rewarded with a second place finish in pentathlon—meaning that he scored the second most in individual events points at the tournament.
Each member of the SBU team contributed to the team's success. Each member of the team placed in the Pilot Award standings, which honors the students who participate in both speech and debate and ranks them according to how many points they scored for their team over the weekend. In this category Hart was the seventh most productive competitor at the tournament. Turner finished in 16th place in this category while Adams was the 25th most productive competitor at the tournament this weekend.
"We have much growing to do, but we are very proud of the way our team performed with style, skill, and grace throughout the weekend,” said Dr. David Bailey, director of forensics. “Our good results at the tournament were particularly impressive in light of how short-handed we were. The average team at this tournament had around 10 competitors each. We managed to hold our own and compete very well with only three." He added, "Perhaps our good results will encourage more talented SBU students to come be a part of our winning tradition."
The team competes next Nov. 19-20, at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. Since 1878, the faculty and staff have created a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. The University has been named one of America’s Best Christian Colleges® for 14 consecutive years, one of America’s 100 Best College Buys® for 15 consecutive years, and it has been named among institutions with America’s Best College Scholarships ® for the past four years by Institutional Research and Evaluation, Inc. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.
SBU’s Office of Marketing & Communications is available to news media 24/7 at 417-399-7918.
