by Katie Conner and Danica Sandberg
November 19, 2007

PLNU’s debate team took first place two weeks ago in the Grossmont Griffin Invitational 2007.

The tournament spanned a three-day weekend, beginning Friday, Nov. 9. Approximately 15 schools participated in the debate tournament on Sunday, which included novice, junior and senior levels.

PLNU had seven novice teams, one junior team and five open teams compete in this past tournament.  PLNU won first for the overall sweepstakes, which takes each school’s points for the entire tournament and tallies them up.

Brandon Walsh, sophomore, won top speaker in the novice division out of 150 speakers.  Sophomores Grant Beeson and Sarah Motte, also took first place and second place, respectively, in top speaker in the junior division.  Partners and sophomores Josh Marble and Taylor Smith took first place in the novice division.

“I honestly really enjoyed the experience, and I am thankful and happy that my partner and I took home the gold,” said Marble, who had participated in his first debate competition.

This was a first-time experience for several other debaters; the  tournament is a requirement for students in professor Skip Rutledge’s argument and debate class.

At the end of the four preliminary rounds, the debaters waited for the results of their debates to be tallied. After an hour and a half of waiting, teams finally found out if they “broke,” meaning they would be debating in the first elimination round. In the end, PLNU ranked first place in the debate tournament and first overall for the weekend.

“We’re pretty much nerds with attitudes,” said Walsh. “I was impressed with the Point Loma students [who] participated. They just slaughtered the other teams of students who were just participating for a class. But the one thing that was disappointing about this tournament was the poor judging.”

Other students were discouraged because of the judging as well. Most of the judges for the day were hired and experienced debaters, but as the day progressed and the tournament went into the evening, few judges remained. Thus, several junior and senior competitors were placed as judges for the novice elimination rounds.

Rutledge commented that though this was a disappointment, it is important to be flexible in such situations and to learn from the experience.

Rutledge has been PLNU’s debate coach since 1989.  Last year, Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association presented Rutledge with the D. L. Miller Award for debate team excellence. 

Some of the “resolutions” debated on the final day of the competition were about the United States’ involvement in Pakistan and a metaphor relating the United States and the Titanic.

This semester, PLNU has debated in six tournaments. The team placed first in the Concordia Eagle tournament and second in Biola’s Todd Lewis Invitational tournament. Currently, PLNU is ranked No. 5 in the nation for the National Parliamentary Debate Association. NPDA is the nation’s largest intercollegiate debate organization. 

“Debate has taught me to think on my feet while looking at issues from a different perspective,” said sophomore Amber Briggs. “I have a better knowledge of what is occurring in the world because I have to keep up on current events in order to succeed.”