Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu
BOLIVAR, Mo. – The Speaking Bearcats recently traveled to their final tournament of the fall 2011 semester at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, December 1-3. The Speaking Bearcats finished in first place in overall sweepstakes for the weekend.
In addition to claiming the top sweepstakes prize, the Speaking Bearcats won first place in individual events sweepstakes, first place in Pi Kappa Delta sweepstakes, and finished third in debate sweepstakes.
“We were very proud of the team not only for what they accomplished but for the work it took to generate the excellent results we had from this weekend” said Director of Forensics Dr. David Bailey. “The SBU scholars faced tough competition from 20 schools from throughout the region. To commemorate their victory (and the upcoming Christmas season) the team was presented with a three-foot-tall nutcracker as the first place sweepstakes trophy. His name is Ferdinand. If you come and visit him in the Jester Building he will give you a host of reasons why you should join the SBU Forensics Team.” Dr. Bailey added, “This was an excellent way to finish the semester. We began the semester with a group of brand new untested freshman competitors. They are now starting to become a true team. We still have much work to do, but this is an exciting time for our forensics program.”
There were many outstanding results from the weekend’s competition. Dr, Bailey said, “Of the 29 individual events SBU brought to the tournament 16 of them broke to finals. Individual results include:
For the first time ever Freshman Lauren Hembree advanced to finals in Prose Interpretation .She finished in seventh place in the event.
In only her second tournament, Freshman Kaila Todd added to the team’s sweepstakes total by earning a “1” in a round of Poetry Interpretation.
Matt Adams was a Semi-finalist in junior parliamentary debate with his partner Jiri Rivera (from Cameron University). Matt also finished fifth in impromptu and informative speaking.
Shawna Barkley and Nik Fischer went to finals in junior parliamentary debate and finished in second place.
Shawna Barkley earned a second place finish in Pentathlon (meaning she was the second highest point-scorer at the tournament). In the rest of her events she finished third in communication analysis, and second in persuasion.
Nik Fischer took first place in communication analysis, and third place in persuasion.
Lauren Schriver captured a first place in prose interpretation (the largest event at the tournament) and second place in dramatic interpretation.
Jenna King took third place in after dinner speaking, and fifth place in program of oral interpretation.
Meg Burns brought home a first place in after dinner speaking, third place in program of oral interpretation, second place in communication analysis, fourth place in dramatic interpretation, and third place in prose interpretation.”
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Photo: Back row left to right: Shawna Barkley, Matt Adams, Nik Fischer, Lauren Schriver, Jenna King, Lauren Hembree. Front row left to right: Meg Burns, Kaila Todd
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SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.
