BOLIVAR, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University Speaking Bearcats opened their 2019-2020 traveling season with a pair of overall sweepstakes victories in the Missouri Mule/Dale Carnegie swing tournament on Oct. 18 and 20, and the Cowtown Classic on Oct. 25-26.
The Speaking Bearcats captured the tournament championship in overall sweepstakes in the Missouri Mule half of the swing, second place in individual event sweepstakes, and were named the top Pi Kappa Delta chapter at the tournament. A “swing” tournament features two back-to-back competitions during the same weekend.
For the second half of the swing weekend, the team won the Dale Carnegie overall sweepstakes championship and won first place in individual event sweepstakes. SBU also won the overall sweepstakes championship for the combined weekend sweepstakes out of 25 schools in attendance.
Missouri Mule results:
• Breanna Prater – Parliamentary debate semifinalist with partner Mitchell Huston; Informative (second place); Persuasion (fifth place); Communication analysis (second place); After-dinner speaking (fourth place); Pentathlon (second place)
• Mitchell Huston – Parliamentary debate semifinalist with partner Breanna Prater; Prose interpretation (fourth place); Dramatic interpretation (sixth place); Duo interpretation with partner Mariah Gilmore (fifth place)
• Mariah Gilmore – Parliamentary debate quarterfinalist with partner Evan Kirksey; Duo interpretation with partner Mitchell Huston (fifth place); Impromptu (sixth place)
• Evan Kirksey – Parliamentary debate quarterfinalist with partner Mariah Gilmore; second speaker open NPDA debate; Persuasion (third place); Informative (fourth place); After-dinner speaking (third place)
• Spencer VanSickle – Parliamentary debate quarterfinalist with partner Kadie Thomas; Informative (third place)
• Kadie Thomas – Parliamentary debate quarterfinalist with partner Spencer VanSickle; Top Novice-persuasion; tournament champion-persuasion
• Austin Brown – Public forum debate quarterfinalist with partner Mariah Barber
• Mariah Barber – Public forum debate quarterfinalist with partner Austin Brown; Poetry interpretation (third place)
• Elizabeth Conley – Program of oral interpretation (sixth place)
• Jessica Paxton – Poetry interpretation (fifth place)
Dale Carnegie results:
• Kadie Thomas – Persuasion and extemporaneous (Top Novice); Impromptu (second place); Persuasion (sixth place)
• Samantha Baldus – Program of oral interpretation (Top Novice and sixth place)
• Mariah Gilmore – Duo interpretation with partner Mitchell Huston (fourth place); Program of oral interpretation (third place)
• Mitchell Huston – Duo interpretation with partner Mariah Gilmore (fourth place); Dramatic interpretation (fifth place)
• Jessica Paxton – Prose interpretation (third place); Poetry (fourth place); Pentathlon (fifth place)
• Evan Kirksey – Informative speaking (Tournament Champion); Persuasion (Tournament Champion); After-dinner speaking (fourth place)
• Spencer VanSickle – Extemporaneous speaking (third place); Communication analysis (fourth place)
• Breanna Prater – Extemporaneous speaking (Tournament Champion); Communication analysis (Tournament Champion); After-dinner speaking (fifth place); Pentathlon (third place)
Cowtown Classic
The Speaking Bearcats hit the road again to attend the Cowtown Classic tournament at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. In sweepstakes, it was a “clean sweep” for the Speaking Bearcats as they captured the sweepstakes championships in all three categories – debate, speech events and overall.
In overall sweepstakes, they finished more than 200 points ahead of the second-place team. Individually, team members won a total of nine tournament championships, five second-place finishes, two third-place spots and four fourth-place finishes.
Individual results:
• Varsity IPDA public debate: Spencer VanSickle won the Tournament Championship and Kadie Thomas finished in second place. Thomas also was the “top speaker” in the event. Mariah Gilmore finished as a quarterfinalist in varsity IPDA debate.
• Junior varsity IPDA: Evan Kirksey finished as a semifinalist. Jessica Paxton, Mariah Barber, and Elizabeth Conley all reached quarterfinals of junior varsity IPDA.
• After-dinner speaking: Evan Kirksey was the Tournament Champion. Jessica Paxton finished second, while Breanna Prater was fourth.
• Communication analysis: Breanna Prater was the Tournament Champion and Spencer VanSickle finished third.
• Dramatic interpretation: Mitchell Huston finished second, while he and his duo partner Mariah Gilmore were Tournament Champions in the event.
• Extemporaneous speaking: Breanna Prater was Tournament Champion and Spencer VanSickle finished sixth.
• Impromptu speaking: Breanna Prater was Tournament Champion and Mariah Gilmore finished fourth.
• Informative speaking: Evan Kirksey finished second, Spencer VanSickle was fourth and Breanna Prater came in fifth.
• Persuasion: The Speaking Bearcats took all three of the top spots in the event. Kadie Thomas was Tournament Champion, followed by teammates Evan Kirksey in second and Breanna Prater in third.
• Poetry interpretation: Mariah Barber finished fourth.
• Prose interpretation: Jessica Paxton was the Tournament Champion.
The team is taking a few weeks off to rest up and practice before hitting the road again in early December for the “Gateway Swing” in St. Louis at Webster University. For more information about the Speaking Bearcats, please contact Director of Forensics Dr. David Bailey at dbailey@SBUniv.edu.
PHOTO: Front row (left to right): Kadie Thomas, Breanna Prater, (standing) Mariah Gilmore, Spencer VanSickle and Mitchell Huston; Back row (left to right): Elizabeth Conley, Mariah Barber, Evan Kirksey, Samantha Baldus, Jessica Paxton and Austin Brown.
*Published: 11-12-19