California Baptist University’s speech and debate team brought home 32 honors and awards over the course of the National Christian College Forensics Invitational and the Pi Kappa Delta National Convention and Tournament the teams participated in over spring break.
“This is as well as the CBU speech and debate team has ever done at competitions outside the state,” said Michael Marse, assistant professor of communication studies and coach of the speech and debate team.
At the National Christian College Forensics Invitational, CBU’s team nabbed 2nd place in the Division II debate sweepstakes and 3rd in Division II individual events Sweepstakes.
Brianna Nelson, senior communication studies and public relations double major, and Ashley Hawley, senior communication studies major, received second place in novice parliamentary debate.
Matthew Phillips, sophomore political science major, and Chris Jamison, senior communication studies major, were named semifinalists in junior parliamentary debate.
Adriena Young, freshman communication stu-dies major, got second in novice dramatic interpretation. Arturo Cabrera, junior communication studies major, got third in novice dramatic interpretation. Young and Cabrera were second in novice duo interpretation, and sixth overall in open duo interpretation.
Jamison was also named a semifinalist in novice impromptu speaking.
Novice events are open to students participating in their first year of competition while junior events are for students in their second year, and open events are for students of any level of experience.
At PKD National Convention, CBU’s team won three sweepstakes awards — an “excellent” in the speech division, in the debate division and the overall division — making the team 14th in the nation in all three divisions of 86 schools that competed.
Every member of the CBU national team received an award at the PKD competition.
Phillips was named superior in extemporaneous speaking, superior in group discussion, superior in broadcast journalism, excellent in the Lincoln/Douglas debate and quarterfinalist in Lincoln/Douglas debate.
Young was named superior in prose interpretation, won two excellent awards in duo interpretation and was chosen to be part of the prose interpretation showcase demonstrating the top performances in the nation.
Hawley was named excellent in impromptu speaking and excellent in group discussion. Jamison was named superior in group discussion. Nelson was named excellent in duo interpretation. Cabrera was named excellent in duo interpretation and excellent in dramatic interpretation.
David Tibbitts, senior communication studies and political science double major, was named superior in persuasive speaking, excellent in informative speaking, excellent in communication analysis, excellent in group discussion and was chosen to perform in the persuasive speaking showcase.
“As (CBU) continues to grow, our speech and debate team will likely continue to grow along with it,” Marse said. The experience of participating in the competition left a lasting impression on speech and debate students.
“At the beginning we were a group of communicators,” Jamison said. “By the end, we were a team of extemporaneous speakers. The lessons will last a lifetime and the memories will bring smiles for years to come.”
CBU has had a speech team since the late 1960s, and the team developed a history of winning in the 1990s. The CBU team has continued to grow in size and ability ever since. It won the overall speech championships at the Christian College Nationals in 2004. Seven students are now on the CBU national team competing nationally.
