Speech and Debate Team Win Team Sweepstakes Award at the Whitworth-McPherson Classic

The Pacific University Speech and Debate team earned the third-place Team Sweepstakes award at the Whitworth-McPherson Classic held at Whitworth University on Oct. 21 and 22.

Freshman Zoë Kim-Maskell '21 won four different awards, including first place in Novice Prose with her selection from Goliath by Neil Gaiman, and third place in Varsity Poetry. She also won a quarterfinalist award in Novice IPDA debate, and a sixth-place speaking award in Novice IPDA.

Junior Brooke Roth also earned two final round spots, finishing sixth in both Prose Interpretation and After-Dinner Speaking (ADS). Roth’s ADS examines conservatives on college campuses with a humorous spin.

The six awards won by Kim-Maskell ’21 and Roth ’19 led to a third-place Team Sweepstakes award.

Junior Ilana Freeman and freshman Christiana Warner also competed at the tournament. Freeman ’19 competed in Prose and Program Oral Interpretation (POI), while Warner ’21 competed in POI and IPDA debate. The tournament brought stiff competition from Boise State, Azusa Pacific, and host Whitworth.

After back-to-back tournament weekends, the Pacific Speech and Debate Team will take a brief break to prepare for the Linfield Mahaffey tournament Nov. 10–12 in McMinnville, Ore.

Speech alumni may remember the Mahaffey tournament well, as Linfield began hosting the tournament in 1931.