Friends,
The PLNU Debate Team just finished its competitive year and is ranked as Second in the National Rankings for the yearlong national sweepstakes race, comparing all schools that participate in this largest intercollegiate debate format in the country. This years' rankings of the top 30 teams in the country are shown below.
PLNU Debaters also came in 8th place at NPDA Nationals for the tournament sweepstakes race at NPDA Nationals this past week at Colorado College based on the win loss records of Ali Cleveland and Gabby Kaufman (Second Elimination Round), Nick Kjeldgaard and McKenzie Leveque (First Elimination Round), Montana Massone and Julia Shotwell (First Elimination Round), and Caleb Moore and Thomas Routson (just missed the elimination rounds). Even our two freshman teams (Lucie Gillette and James Bickel, and Sam Jones and Nathaniel Hosmer) competed well at the national championships, honing skills that will serve them well next year.
At the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE) held immediately preceding this NPDA Championship, at C S U Pueblo in Pueblo Colorado, PLNU seniors Caleb Moore and Thomas Routson advanced to the second elimination round of this elite championship, being named 12th place two person team in the tournament, and team President Caleb Moore was named 12th Speaker.
Though we graduate 4 of these top debaters, the returning members of the team should be a strong core for next year, especially when combined with some of the top recruits looking forward to joining PLNU in the Fall.
Here are the top 30 yearlong schools referenced above. PLNU has been named the number one program in this year long sweepstakes race 5 of the last 15 years.
We are grateful for your continued support of forensics through the many years we have been participating, and I am especially thankful for the amazing coaching and directing skills of Professor Ashley Nuckels Cuevas, Brandon West, Haley Courtney, and Jonathan Viel, and so many other alumni throughout the year for coaching, judging, praying and for your financial support through the alumni charter Friends of Forensics.
National Parliamentary Debate Association Yearlong National Rankings 2016 2017 Last Updated: Sunday March 26th 2017
1 Univ of Utah 149.34
2 Pt. Loma 142.33
3 Washburn 141.14
4 El Camino 126.54
5 Morehouse 121.25
6 Concordia-Irvine 115.33
7 Univ of Pacific 112.66
8 Lewis Clark College 109.50
9 Santa Rosa 106.75
10 Rice University 87.51
11 USAFA 87.17
12 Irvine Valley College 87.09
13 Univ Nevada - Reno 80.94
14 Grand Canyon Univ 78.50
15 Univ of Texas - Tyler 76.67
16 William Jewell 72.25
17 Diablo Valley College 71.33
18 McKendree 71.19
19 UC Berkeley 70.09
20 Moorpark 69.92
21 Modesto Junior College 69.67
22 Biola Univ 67.75
23 Texas Tech 63.06
24 Western Washington 58.01
25 Univ of Oregon 56.39
26 San Jose State Univ 56.17
27 Middle Tennessee State University 56.09
28 CSU - Pueblo 55.67
29 Wheaton 54.92
30 Pasadena City College 53.50
