Pacific Speech & Debate Team Shines at Tournament
Pacific University’s Speech & Debate Team continued to build on its success at the third tournament of the season, the 87th annual Mahaffey Memorial Tournament, held at Linfield College Nov. 10-12. The invitational, intercollegiate forensics tournament is one of the longest-running tournaments of its kind.
Freshman Hunter Buen ’21 finished as a semifinalist in the Novice International Public Debate Association (IPDA) debate. Buen also earned a third-place Speaker Award for being a top speaker among more than 30 debaters. Buen, who also placed fifth in Novice Prose Interpretation, entered elimination rounds with a strong 4-1 record.
Freshman Christiana Warner ’21 placed fifth in the Open Program Oral Interpretation (POI), for her performance about how gaslighting, a form of mental abuse, affects women. She was the Top Junior competitor in the POI category, along with earning other distinctions.
Sophomore Lillian Wolf ’20 was the 13th top speaker in the Novice IPDA debate. Other competitors included Brooke Roth ’19, Tera Cafro ’20, Some Bhadra ’20, Megan Ng ’21, Olivia Rockwood ’21 and Hanin Najjar ’21.
Pacific’s Speech & Debate Team is a member of the Northwest Forensics Conference. The award-winning team attends eight to 10 tournaments a year.