Kansas Wesleyan University brought home six individual national championships and numerous other awards from the Christian College National Forensics and Debate Tournament. The Coyotes competed on the Grand Canyon University campus in Phoenix, AZ, March 18-20, against 20 colleges and universities from across the U.S.
As a school, Kansas Wesleyan placed second in debate and fourth in individual events. Combining all divisions together and combining debate with individual events points, the Coyotes placed seventh overall. While being the smallest school in attendance, KWU was considered Division I in individual events and Division II in debate. The division assignment was based on the number of entries a school had.
Individually, the Kansas Wesleyan students really shone. Senior Alex Vore brought home two national championships. He was crowned national champion in varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate and was declared the national champion varsity Lincoln-Douglas speaker. Freshman Megan Kline also captured two national championships — one in novice extemporaneous speaking and one in novice after dinner speaking. Junior Dakota Yates was the national champion in varsity extemporaneous speaking, and sophomore Autumn Zimmerman was declared the national champion junior varsity parliamentary debate speaker.
Other placings in individual events were:
Megan Kline – fourth in novice impromptu speaking and fifth in novice informative speaking.
Autumn Zimmerman – sixth in program of oral interpretation and seventh in communications analysis.
In the pentathlon for individual events, Megan Kline placed fourth in the novice division and Dakota Yates placed 10th in the varsity division.
Other placings in Parliamentary Debate were:
Speaker awards:
Junior varsity division – Megan Kline, second; Freshman Dani Disney, third; Sophomore Jacob Studebaker, sixth; and Freshman Cassity Morlan, 10th.
Varsity division – Dakota Yates, second.
Parliamentary Debate Tournament results:
Junior varsity division – Autumn Zimmerman and Megan Kline, third; Cassity Morlan and Sophomore Josh Davis, fourth.
Varsity division – Dakota Yates and Alex Vore, fourth.
Individual endurance award (points from both individual events and debate): Megan Kline placed eighth in the novice division.
