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Forensics takes home 8th place in San Diego
The Advocate
The MHCC Forensics team finished in 8th place for overall sweepstakes and 6th among community colleges at the "Sunset Cliffs Classic" at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.
The Sunset Cliffs Classic, also known as the "Bloodbath at the Beach," was held all day on both Feb. 5-6.
Only four members of the speech and debate team, Jeff Lewis, Zach Nicholas,
Kevin Craig and Dalton Hellman, competed at the tournament. Other teams ranged in size from from 12-25 members.
"I was very pleased with their performance," said Shannon Valdivia, forensics director, on the four's achievements at the event.
"Having Zach and Jeff make it all the way to the final round said a lot about their ability," she said.
"Goes to show you that the community colleges, we're very strong in tournament," said Valdivia, in regards to the fact that six community colleges finished within the top 10 overall.
In the individual events, Kevin Craig was a finalist in open persuasive speaking and placed first in novice programmed oral Interpretation.
For the debate segment of the event, the team of Jeff Lewis and Zach Nicholas placed second in the Junior NPDA debate while Kevin Craig and Dalton Hellman were octofinalists in the same event.
For the NPDA Speaker awards, three of the four placed in the top 15 of the 68 competitors at the event, with Nicholas placing sixth, Lewis in ninth and Hellman in 12th.
Valdivia said, "A very good test for the guys. It shows that when we go to a national audience, we have to step it up."
"This is a wake up call for everybody," she added.
Next up for Forensics is the Lewis and Clark/OSU swing on Feb. 25-27. "It's a really good chance for us to knock off the rust and have a really good tournament," said Valdivia of the upcoming tournament.
It's a good practice run leading into nationals," she said. MHCC will also host a high school speech and debate tournament on campus Saturday, with 39 schools present.
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