2016-17 Talkin’ Broncos, photo by Allison Corona
The Boise State University Talkin’ Broncos, the 2015-2016 Pi Kappa Delta national champions in speech and debate, took first place in individual events sweepstakes and second-place in overall sweepstakes at the Webster University 19th annual Gorlok Gala Forensics Tournament Jan. 27-29 in St. Louis. The Talkin’ Broncos beat out 42 other schools from 22 states – including Cameron-Newman University, Texas Southern University and University of Alabama – to win the individual events sweepstakes and took first place overall in two different formats of debate. Boise State was also awarded the Gorlok Traveling Trophy for this year’s team with the most accumulated points over the history of the tournament.
“The Gorlok is a really big tournament,” said Manda Hicks, director of forensics. “Many of the speech events have a semi-final bracket that is very difficult to break out of, and I think we saw more Boise State people advance through semi-finals this year than we ever have before. That, plus our tournament wins in parliamentary debate and in public forum debate made this an incredibly special weekend.”
In parliamentary debate, the team of Hailie Johnson-Waskow (junior, Nampa) and Mackenzie Moss (junior, Boise) took first place overall, advancing undefeated through five preliminary rounds and four final rounds of debate. In public forum, the teams of Ryan Orlando (senior, Meridian) and Jamie Maas (junior, Meridian) and Tate Volbrecht (freshman, Billings, Montana) and Brock Arnold (sophomore, Meridian) closed out the final round and shared the tournament championship. Additionally, Orlando and Maas were quarter finalists in parliamentary debate. All tournament champions won speaker awards, with Orlando ranked second-place in parliamentary debate and eighth place in public forum. Other public forum speaker awards included: Volbrecht, ranked fourth place; Luke Yeates (senior, Boise), ranked fifth place; Zach Hill (freshman, Kuna), ranked seventh place; Ximena Bustillo (freshman, Meridian), ranked ninth place; Connor Johnson (freshman, Billings), ranked tenth place; Maas, ranked eleventh place; Lauren Peña (junior, Meridian) ranked thirteenth place; Arnold, in fourteenth place; and Daniel Gardner (junior, Twin Falls) in fifteenth place.
In the tournament pentathlon, Catherine Floate (senior, Meridian) was recognized as the tournament’s third-best competitor overall in individual events. Floate led the Talkin’ Broncos in scoring with a third-place win in extemporaneous speaking, sixth place in prose interpretation, a semi-finalist award in impromptu speaking, and an excellent award in persuasive speaking.
Other top competitors included: Justin Fields (senior, Boise), who took second place in informative speaking; Steve Silva (senior, Boise), who advanced through semifinals to take second place in persuasive speaking, was the event’s top novice competitor and received an excellent in impromptu speaking; Mallory Clark (junior, Boise), who took fourth place in duo interpretation, was a semifinalist in prose interpretation, and received excellent awards in both poetry interpretation and improv duo pairs; Samantha Haskell (Tacoma, Washington), who took fourth place in duo interpretation, and received excellent awards in both poetry interpretation and improv duo pairs; Janice Witherspoon (sophomore, Caldwell) who advanced through semifinals to take fifth place in dramatic interpretation, sixth place in program oral interpretation, and an excellent award in after dinner speaking; Justin Henry (senior, Kennewick, Washington), who advanced through semifinals to take fifth place in persuasive speaking; Elizabeth Popp (junior, Columbia, Missouri), who took fifth place in after dinner speaking; Yeates, who advanced through semifinals to take fifth place in extemporaneous speaking; Moss, who took sixth place in after dinner speaking, communication analysis and informative speaking, and was a semifinalist in extemporaneous speaking; Madison Grady (Whitefish, Montana), who advanced through semifinals to take sixth place in extemporaneous speaking and received an excellent in communication analysis; Scott Ludwig (senior, Pocatello), who advanced through semifinals to take sixth place in dramatic interpretation; Bustillo, who was a semifinalist in both prose and impromptu; Hunter Carson (junior, Nampa), who was a semifinalist in dramatic interpretation and received an excellent in extemporaneous speaking; Johnson, who was a semifinalist in impromptu speaking and was the event’s top novice; Brandon Sams (senior, Mountain Home), who received an excellent in communication analysis; Andde Mendez (senior, Nampa), who received an excellent in improv duo pairs; Kaelee Novich (freshman, Nampa), who received an excellent in improv duo pairs; and Arnold, who received an excellent in impromptu speaking.
The Talkin’ Broncos continue on to Oregon State University in February. The Talkin’ Broncos are supported in part through the generosity of the Jeker Family Trust. For more information about the Talkin’ Broncos, contact Hicks at mandahicks@boisestate.edu.
BY: CIENNA MADRID PUBLISHED 7:44 AM / FEBRUARY 1, 2017