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The Boise State Speech and Debate team continue their 2024-2025 undefeated conference season with a first-place overall sweepstakes finish at the Steve Hunt Classic, hosted by Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, from Oct. 10 – 12. The tournament included competitors from Texas, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Florida. The team won all top honors by finishing first in Overall, Individual Events and Debate Sweepstakes.
In Open Public Debate, Adam Pendergrass (senior, Nampa) won the tournament and also received the first-place speaker award. Allie Hampton (senior, Meridian) and Chloe Sellers (senior, Twin Falls) finished as quarter-finalists. Anthony Thomas (senior, Meridian) and Ivan Markevych (junior, Kremenchuk, Poltava region, Ukraine) finished as octo-finalists. Speaker awards in open division included: Sellers in ninth-place, Kiryn Willet (senior, Boise) in eighth-place, Hampton in seventh-place, and Thomas in fifth-place. In Junior Public Debate, Cadence Marang (junior, Nampa) was the champion and received the second-place speaker award. Colby Bond (sophomore, Meridian) and Seddi Momenpour (freshman, Nampa) finished as semi-finalists. Jesse Madison (sophomore, Meridian) finished as a quarter-finalist. Ari Ashby (sophomore, Idaho Falls), Charlie Giulian (freshman, Ripon, CA) and Brayden Parks (sophomore, Mountain Home) all finished as octo-finalist. Parks was named the top speaker in the junior division. Other Junior division speaker awards included: Momenpour in ninth-place, Aleigh Holmes (freshman, Garden City) in eighth-place, Ashby in fifth-place, and Madison in fourth-place. In the novice division, Ben Hobbs (freshman, Caldwell) was recognized as the second-place speaker.
In Individual Events, Hampton led the Talkin’ Broncos with first-place finishes in extemporaneous speaking, impromptu speaking, and persuasive speaking. Hampton received first-place overall in the tournament individual events championship. Jaxon Holmes (junior, Garden City) took second-place in persuasive speaking, fifth-place in prose interpretation, second-place in impromptu speaking, and second-place in duo interpretation with Pendergrass. Holmes received the second-place overall individual events award. Ashby took first-place in both junior prose interpretation and junior informative speaking, second-place in junior persuasive speaking, third-place in junior extemporaneous speaking, and fourth-place in junior impromptu speaking. Aleigh Holmes took first in both junior persuasive speaking and junior impromptu speaking. Bond took top novice in dramatic interpretation, third-place in junior impromptu speaking, and fifth-place in junior after-dinner speaking. Giulian took first-place in novice extemporaneous speaking top novice in prose interpretation, and fifth-place in junior persuasive speaking. Parks took first in novice informative speaking.
Other top competitors included: Pendergrass, who took second-place in both editorial commentary and duo interpretation and was a semi-finalist in impromptu speaking; Orion Logan (junior, Boise), who took second-place in dramatic interpretation, and fifth-place in both impromptu speaking and after-dinner speaking; Madison, who took second-place in junior extemporaneous speaking and fourth-place in junior informative speaking; Sam Kleman (junior, Boise), who took second in open communication analysis; Hobbs, who took second in junior prose; Willet, who took third-place in communication analysis and fifth-place in extemporaneous speaking; Bridget Gibson (junior, Boise), who took third-place in program oral interpretation and was a semi-finalist in both extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking; Aiden Brown (freshman, Queen Creek, AZ), who took fourth in dramatic interpretation; Ryan Wind (junior, Meridian), who took fourth-place in prose interpretation; Marang, who took fourth-place in junior extemporaneous speaking; Markevych, who took sixth-place in prose interpretation; Thomas, who took sixth in extemporaneous speaking.
The Talkin’ Broncos continue their 2025-2026 season with their second designated conference tournament, the Mahaffey Memorial, hosted by Linfield College in McMinville, Oregon . The Talkin’ Broncos 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.