The Lower Columbia College Fighting Smelt Speech & Debate Team closed their fall quarter competition slate by competing at the Earl Wells Virtual Speakeasy tournament, hosted by Oregon State University. The squad was named champion in two-year college team sweepstakes in both debate and in speech. In overall team sweepstakes, LCC finished third among all colleges and universities. This placed LCC ahead of regional rivals Oregon State and Pacific University, as well as strong national programs including Modesto Junior College and the University of Minnesota.
This result was a true team effort, with five different LCC students advancing to elimination rounds and earning team sweepstakes points.
Keida Patterson continued their breakout season with impressive results across several competitive events. Patterson was named champion of novice impromptu speaking, runner-up in novice informative speaking, as well as fifth place and top novice in persuasive speaking. On the debate side of the tournament, they were named third place speaker and won a silver award in novice IPDA debate.
Seamus Mahoney also earned silver in novice IPDA debate. In speech, Mahoney finished third place in novice extemporaneous speaking and fifth place in novice impromptu speaking.
Atilla Elik advanced to elimination rounds for the first time in his collegiate career, earning a bronze award in novice IPDA debate and finishing fourth in novice extemporaneous speaking.
Charlotte Curry placed fourth in open informative speaking. Curry also finished with a winning record in open IPDA debate.
Jupiter Hall finished fourth place in novice impromptu speaking.
Also competing for LCC were Xavier Moore and Adah Moore.
The Fighting Smelt received coaching and judging support from program alumni Erika Hein (class of 2017), Glenn John Cervantes (‘18), and Jaida Barrows (’23), in addition to LCC faculty Larissa Arnold and Alex Brehm.
LCC Speech and Debate will be off for the duration of winter break, then will return to competition January 5-6 with the online RAFL Warm Up tournament, hosted by Phi Rho Pi Region IV.