This past weekend the Belmont University Speech and Debate Team won the state championship at the Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics Association competition.

The tournament was held February 8-10 on the campus of Carson-Newman University.  With twelve universities in competition, Belmont placed first in individual events, third in debate, and ranked top in the overall competition.  Jason Stahl, director of the team explained, “Tennessee has a great history of speech and debate programs.  It’s truly an honor to see our students succeed over such a talented group of schools.”

Team members competed in debate, public speaking, and literature interpretation events.  Throughout the program, they hone their critical thinking, speechwriting, and performance skills in competitions across the country. Sophomore Marissa Avnaim revealed, “we’ve all been working so hard and we definitely saw it in the results… being on this team has definitely been the most rewarding part of my college career so far.”

Here are the awards that BU students received at the TIFA state tournament:

Debate Awards:

• Novice IPDA Quarter-Finalists – Jace Wilder, Marissa Avnaim
• Novice IPDA Semi-Finalist – Deanna Medina
• Novice IPDA 2^nd Place – Nazif Manaj
• Novice IPDA 3rd place speaker – Nazif Manaj
• Novice IPDA 4th place speaker – Deanna Medina

Public Speaking Events:

• After Dinner Speaking
  • Sophie Lampkin, 5^th place
• Extemporaneous Speaking
  • Alexander Baynum, 2^nd place
  • Tyler Redmon, 4^th place
• Informative
  • Alexander Baynum, 2^nd place
• Persuasion
  • Marissa Avnaim, 2^nd place
• Communication Analysis
  • Alexander Baynum, 3^rd place
  • Tyler Redmon, 4^th place
  • Deanna Medina, 5^th place
• Radio Broadcasting
  • Allison Mahal, 2^nd place
  • Mary Spaulding, 3^rd place

Interpretation of Literature Events

• Dramatic Interpretation
  • Alex Jordan, 4^th place
• DUO Interpretation
  • Alex Jordan/Mary Spaulding, 4^th place
  • Alexander Baynum/Allison Mahal, 3^rd
  • Madison Kendrick/Allison Mahal, 1^st place
• Poetry
  • Jace Wilder, 2^nd place
  • Mary Spaulding, 3^rd place
  • POI – Madison Kendrick, 3^rd place
• Prose
  • Madison Kendrick, 3^rd place
  • Alex Jordan, 4^th place
  • Allison Mahal, 5^th place