The Whitworth forensics team continues to make a statement on the national level as professor of forensics Michael Ingram’s team of freshmen through seniors took first place at the National Christian College Forensics Tournament March 12.  It is the seventh competition the forensics team has competed in this year.  The team have finished no lower than third place this year in each tournament they have competed in.

“I think it shows that we have a lot of potential,” freshman Hannah Tweet said.  “Our team is pretty young, so it’s exciting to know that a lot of these people are going to be around for the next four years.”

Ingram said that this most recent  performance demonstrates that Whitworth students can engage in thoughtful academic exchanges of ideas with their peers and display superior reasoning and communication skills.

“It illustrates that Whitworth has strong students who excel in competition with peers from around the nation, and it is quite lovely to speak about being national champions,” Ingram said.

Ingram said that despite a few minor challenges facing the issue of doubling the size of the team this year, he has been very pleased with the numerical growth of the team.

“More students are interested in advancing their oral communication skills and that makes me happy, “ Ingram said.  “Of course each year is a challenge in writing new speeches, finding new pieces of literature to perform and sharpening ideas, [but] I think we have a very solid foundation for the coming academic year.”

Even with wins like this one at the NCCF tournament, Tweet said that Ingram sees it differently than others around him.

“[Ingram] says that all trophies mean is that other people see in [them] what [he sees in them],” Tweet said.  “So, we get trophies, we do really well and it’s exciting and then we move on….Now we’re focused on our next tournament and how we can improve.”

According to the Whitworth Forensics web page, employers have seen something in the Whitworth debaters.  Whitworth’s forensics alumni have gone onto successful careers in law, business, ministry, teaching, nonprofit fields as well as variety of other professions.

The forensics team had their final competition, the International Public Debate Association National Tournament, at the University of Arkansas-Monticello March 21-24.

Contact Connor Soudani at [email protected]