The Pi Kappa Delta National Championship Boise State Speech and Debate team continue their 2017-18 conference season with their seventh-consecutive win at the annual Mahaffey Memorial Tournament in McMinville, Oregon, Nov. 10-12. The Talkin’ Broncos won first place in Overall Sweepstakes. The tournament featured more than 30 schools including Berkeley, Carroll College, Humboldt State College, Whitworth University, Lewis and Clark College and Willamette University.
“This is one of the oldest comprehensive tournaments in the country, with really incredible competition,” said Manda Hicks, director of forensics. “We broke 37 events to finals in individual events, and closed out the final round in prose interpretation – that means no other schools had competitors in the final round of prose; it was all Boise State. I’m fairly sure that’s the first time we’ve done something like that at the Mahaffey.”
In open public debate, Madison Grady (senior, Whitefish, MT) was the tournament champion, going undefeated in preliminary rounds, emerging as top seed, and winning the final round of debate. Grady received the Singletary Award – an honor that recognizes the top debater across the tournament’s multiple formats of debate. Grady also received the tournament’s first place speaker award in public debate. Runner-up to Grady for the Singletary Award was Hunter Carson (senior, Nampa) who finished as a semi-finalist and received the fifth-place speaker award. Kaitlyn Rogers (senior, Boise) finished as a quarter-finalist and received the sixth-place speaker award. Lauren Peña (senior, Meridian) finished as an octo-finalist. Sam Haskell (junior,Tacoma, WA) received the eighth-place speaker award.
In junior public debate, Connor Johnson (sophomore, Billings, MT) was the tournament champion and received the fifth-place speaker award. Tate Volbrecht (sophomore, Billings, MT) finished as a semi-finalist and received the first-place speaker award. Both Asia Miller (junior, Green River, WY)and Zach Hill (sophomore, Kuna) finished as quarter-finalists, with Hill winning the tenth-place speaker award. Carson Lloyd (freshman, Boise), Kelsey Cooper (junior, Spring Creek, NV), and Kaelee Novich (sophomore, Nampa) finished as octo-finalists, with Novich winning the seventh-place speaker award. Andrew Castro (junior, White Plains, NY) received the sixth-place speaker award.
In open parliamentary debate, the team of Mackenzie Moss (senior, Boise) and Hailie Johnson-Waskow (senior, Nampa) were semi-finalists, with Johnson-Waskow receiving the third-place speaker award and Moss receiving the fourth-place speaker award. The team of Ximena Bustillo (sophomore, Nampa) and Jamie Mass (junior, Meridian) finished as quarter-finalists.
In open British parliamentary debate, the team of Janice Witherspoon (junior, Caldwell) and Kortni Clements (junior, Meridian) were quarter-finalists, with Witherspoon winning the fifth-place speaker award.
In individual events, Haskell led the Talkin’ Broncos with first-place finishes in both program oral interpretation and prose interpretation, and was sixth place in dramatic interpretation. Witherspoon took first place in women’s voices, second place in program oral interpretation, and fourth place in impromptu speaking. Hill took first place in communication analysis, and first place in both junior prose interpretation and junior persuasive speaking. Novich took first place in informative speaking. Volbrecht took first place in junior extemporaneous speaking and second place in junior persuasive speaking. Miller took first place in after dinner speaking.
Other top competitors included: Moss, who took second place in informative speaking and third place in extemporaneous speaking; Johnson, who took second place in both junior prose and junior informative speaking; Castro, who took second place in poetry interpretation, third place in duo interpretation and fourth place in program oral interpretation; Daniel Gardner (senior, Twin Falls), who took second place in dramatic interpretation, third place in duo interpretation and fourth place in prose interpretation; Clements, who took second place in persuasive speaking and sixth place in prose interpretation; Elizabeth Popp (senior, Columbia, MO), who took second place in prose interpretation; Bustillo, who took third place in both junior after dinner speaking and junior prose interpretation, fourth place in junior extemporaneous speaking and sixth place in junior impromptu; Mallory Clark (senior, Boise), who took third place in both program oral interpretation and prose interpretation; Peña, who took third place in both women’s voices and poetry interpretation; Rogers, who took third place in communication analysis; Andde Mendez (senior, Nampa), who took fourth place in after dinner speaking, fifth place in poetry interpretation and sixth place in program oral interpretation; Carson, who took fourth place in poetry interpretation and fifth place in informative speaking; Maas, who took fifth place in impromptu speaking; and Cooper, who took fifth place in junior impromptu.
The Talkin’ Broncos continue their 2017-18 season with their first national tournament, the Off-Broadway Swing at Hofstra University, in Garden City, New York, Nov 30.
The Talkin’ Broncos are the 2017-18 Pi Kappa Delta National Champions in Speech and Debate and are supported in part through the generosity of the Jeker Family Trust. For more information about the Talkin’ Broncos, contact Manda Hicks, director of forensics at Boise State at mandahicks@boisestate.edu.
BY: CIENNA MADRID PUBLISHED 9:34 AM / NOVEMBER 21, 2017