For the second year in a row, the Whitworth forensics team brought home a national championship. The team took first place at the National Christian College Forensics Association National Tournament, which took place in Riverside, Calif. They competed against 28 schools that are members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU).

That makes the forensics team Whitworth’s only back-to-back national champion winners, team coach Mike Ingram said.

“It’s more competitive, and you compete against schools from different areas, which means many different ways of interpreting topics,” junior Stephanie Saracco said.

The team won the “sweepstakes” award, although this does not necessarily mean they won first in every,  or even any, event; the sweepstakes take into account the cumulative total of points in all events. Although the team did not win first place in the individual and debate sections, due to its well-roundedness, the total score was enough to win overall, junior Sarah Sauter said.

In a related extracurricular activity, the Ethics Bowl team tied for fifth in the nation on Feb 27. They went undefeated in the preliminaries, which is common, Sauter said.

Ethics Bowl differs from forensics, in that it is a five-person team event that is prepared ahead of time, while argumentation for forensics is usually written during the event. In addition, the teams are separate.

Sauter is on the team for both the Ethics Bowl and forensics.

“In a team setting like Ethics Bowl, there are two team members to each case who do the extensive research and practice answering questions, and the others listen for things that don’t make sense,” Sauter said.

The teams are judged based on clarity, relevant ethical issues and consideration of opposing viewpoints.