Durant, OK— The Southeastern Speech and Debate Association competed at the Christmas Classic Speech and Debate Tournament, its last tournament of the year, November 30 – December 2, at Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The forensics tournament featured varsity National Parliamentary Debate, junior and varsity International Public Debate Association and all 11 American Forensics Association National Individual Events. In addition, the tournament took advantage of the holiday season and offered an ugly Christmas sweater completion for team coaches and a Christmas Carol parody completion for debate teams.

Jacob Morrison, junior political science major; Hannah Nunley, freshman political science major; Hannah Barnett, freshman communication major; Emily Dahl, freshman communication major; Haleigh Harper, freshman mathematics education major; Avery Kahl, freshman aviation major; and Austin Roach, freshman computer science major matched wits with students from Carl Albert State College, Kansas State University, Kansas Wesleyan University, Northeastern State University, Oklahoma City University, Oral Roberts University, Sterling College, Texas Christian University, Texas Southern University, Tulsa Community College, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Texas at Dallas, Wayland Baptist University, and West Texas A & M University.

Barnett, from Hugo, Oklahoma reached the quarterfinals in Public debate in only her first tournament as a member of the team. Barnett would lose a split decision to the eventual tournament champion from Oral Roberts University.

Kahl, from Sherman, Texas took first place in his second Impromptu round of the tournament yet would regrettably miss the breakout rounds by just a few spots.

The Parli team of Kahl and Harper, from Durant, in their first tournament as part of Dr. Clark’s Business and Professional Speaking Honors course went one and four in their preliminary rounds. “This is a remarkable accomplishment for this duo” remarked Dr. Clark, “especially since they were competing in the open division and neither of them have any formal debate experience aside from the education and practice stemming from our class.” The dynamic duo of Morrison, from Durant and Nunley, from El Campo, TX finished the preliminary rounds three and two and missed the quarterfinals based on speaker points. In two Parli tournaments this year, the team of Morrison and Nunley is eight and two in preliminary rounds.

SSDA’s next forensics tournament will be the Sweetheart Swing at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK, February 8-10, 2019.

To learn more about Southeastern’s intercollegiate forensics program and SSDA’s tournament schedule visit the Department of Art, Communication and Theatre website at http://homepages.se.edu/commor contact Speech and Debate Advisor Dr. Randy Clark at ext. 2556.