The Lower Columbia College Fighting Smelt Speech & Debate Team continued their historic run of success in Northwest Forensics Conference (NFC) competition with a dominant victory at the Mahaffey Memorial tournament, hosted by Linfield University. LCC finished first place in Division III with more than double the team sweepstakes points of the second place school. The Fighting Smelt placed fourth overall among the 22 schools at the tournament, finishing ahead of strong four-year university programs including the University of Washington, Lewis Clark College, and Oregon State University.
This team result was based on well-rounded contributions from the entire squad. Twelve students represented LCC at this tournament, with ten different competitors advancing to at least one final round.
Covenant Adegbami finished third for the Marshall Award, which honors the best novice- and junior-level competitors at the tournament. This was a result of her first place finish in both novice prose interpretation and impromptu speaking.
Mara Slabu earned qualifications for the exclusive American Forensics Association’s National Speech Tournament by placing second in communication analysis and third in open persuasive speaking. She also advanced to quarterfinals in open IPDA debate.
Jared Doherty advanced to quarterfinals in open IPDA debate. This was his first career break in an open debate division.
Divaa Nchau was the champion of junior persuasive speaking. She also finished fourth in junior prose interpretation, and was named fourth speaker in novice IPDA debate.
Vickey Chen finished third in novice prose interpretation and fifth in novice informative speaking.
Ethan Cooper finished second in novice persuasive speaking. He also finished with a winning record in novice IPDA debate.
Aiden Tran finished third in novice informative speaking and fourth in novice impromptu speaking.
Rayelynn Camp (prose interpretation, informative speaking) and Damien Lucero (persuasive speaking) both advanced to final rounds for the first time in their competitive careers.
Kamren Mattison finished sixth in junior persuasive speaking in his first tournament after moving out of the novice division.
The Fighting Smelt were also represented by Ameera Vandolah and Mercedes Mussser.
The squad received coaching support from program alumni Julia Mitchell, My Ta, Adah Moore, and Rebecca Pickner.
Next up for LCC Speech and Debate is the Earl Wells Memorial tournament, hosted by Oregon State University the weekend of December 6-7.
Contact:
Alex Brehm
Director of Forensics
Communication Studies Instructor
Lower Columbia College
abrehm@lowercolumbia.edu
(360) 442-2670