OCTC Speech & Debate Team earns honors in 2 tourneys/1 weekend

by Bernie Hale

Owensboro, KY (03/02/2022) — Owensboro Community & Technical College's speech and debate team, the TM Rice Debate Society competed in two tournaments on the same weekend, February 25-26, 2022 earning top awards at both events.

The Cryptoid Clash Debate Tournament, was hosted by Bowling Green State University, located in Toledo, Ohio and held virtually.

Caleb Rush, won in quarterfinals and placed third in the International Parliamentary Debate division.

OCTC's TM Rice Debate Society co-hosted the Pathfinder-Bison Forensics Fiesta, with North Dakota State University, hosting the tournament online.

The OCTC team earned several top team and individual award included first place in Debate Sweepstakes-2-Year division, Individual Events-2-Year division, and Overall Individual Events.

Caleb Rush earned first place in the Quadrathon, first place in Radio Broadcasting, and Impromptu Storytelling. Third place in Impromptu Counseling, and fourth place in Extemporaneous Speaking. Rush was named as the Top Individual Events Speaker.

David Daniel, earned second place in Impromptu Counseling and Radio Broadcasting, and was a finalist in Dramatic Interpretation. Daniel placed fourth in the Quadrathon. Daniel also earned a fifth place Speaker Award in IPDA Debate.

Heaven Taylor, earned second place in Impromptu Storytelling, second place speaker in IPDA Debate, third place honor in Team in IPDA Debate, and sixth place in Quadrathon.

Kayla Mohon, earned finalist honors in Impromptu Storytelling, Persuasive Speaking, and Impromptu Eulogy. Mohon also placed seventh in Quadrathon and earned a speaker award in IPDA Debate.

Coach Bob Glenn added, "We want to thank everyone who helped host the first annual Pathfinder-Bison Speech and Debate Tournament with our friends from North Dakota State University in beautiful Fargo, North Dakota. The miracle of online tournaments is that we had teams from as far away as Nebraska and judges as far away as Florida and Chicago helping us out."

The judges included: Dr. Kevin Beardmore, Dr. Meredith Skaggs, Kaye Brown, Dr. Lori Donahoo, Oscar Segura, Angelica Wilson, Amy Jorgenson, Dr. Geralyn Caplan, Suzanne Craig, Rachel Cary, Holly Glenn, Bobby Glenn, Michael Boyd, Dan Russell, Kendra Russell, Sean Colbert, Sharon Richling, Steve Magans, Emily Cox, John Biggs, Phoenix Burchfield, Travis Cornett, and Jeff Harkleroad.

OCTC's TM Rice Debate Society plans to attend the National Online Debate Tournament in March and a Climb the Mountain Debate Tournament in April. Membership on the team is open to any OCTC student. For more information contact Coach Bob Glenn 270-929-7471/270-686-4553.

Owensboro Community & Technical College is one of the sixteen community and technical colleges that make up the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. OCTC serves the KY counties of Daviess, Hancock, Ohio and McLean. OCTC has three campuses in Daviess County and a Center and Annex in Hancock County. OCTC strives to serve the communities in the service area by providing associate degree education for transfer, state of the art technical education for students focusing on entering the workforce, customized business and industry solutions through the Workforce Solutions division, and adult education and business and industry testing through the SkillTrain unit.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System is the Commonwealth's largest postsecondary institution with 16 colleges and more than 70 campuses. We also are Kentucky's largest provider of workforce training and online education. Through partnerships with business and industry, we align our programs to meet the needs of local employers. We help students fulfill their dreams of creating a better life through programs that lead directly to jobs or help them transfer to one of our four-year partners.

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