The speech and debate society traveled to its final in-person tournament of the semester this past weekend, held at Arkansas Tech University in nearby Russellville. Students Austin Keefe, Emma Powell, Ella Grannon, Percy Blaich, Izzy Swafford, Dylan Hall, Presley Jones, Colten Nichols, Luke Paulus, Matthew Cook, Luke Thurmon, Josh Tompkins, Lydia Lim, Jordan Ellis, Riley Lowe and Hayden Jescheling earned 18 awards at the tournament, closing out the fall semester with a combined total of 77, an impressive showing.

In comparison, during the 2024-25 season, the team earned 100 awards across the entire year. The team remains on track to break that record handily. 

In the TIPDA division, the team of Keefe/Powell were semifinalists, and Keefe was awarded the first place speaker award in the division. 

In the novice division, Jones was named the top novice debater for the civil discourse award; Powell was named third place speaker and finished as a quarterfinalist, and Grannon finished as a semifinalist. 

In the junior varsity division, Blaich finished as a semifinalist at his first tournament after moving up a division, and Paulus finished as the second place debater in the division at his first tournament of the season. 

In the varsity division, Keefe finished as a semifinalist and the fourth place speaker, while Hall was named the top varsity debater for the civil discourse award, was second place speaker and second place debater in the division. 

Together, the team earned four combined total awards, which includes all members' contributions to the tournament. They earned third place overall TIPDA program, second place overall individual program and second place overall program (which includes scores from both the team and individual sides of competition). Finally, the team was awarded the top honor at the tournament, the program-wide civil discourse award. This goes to the school with the highest speaking scores for the delivery, courtesy and appropriate tone sections of the speaker point breakdown.  

The team will next compete at a virtual tournament for individual events, and then take a needed break. Their next debate tournament will be the Southern Forensics Championship Tournament. This stands as the Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi state championships for both debate and individual events. They will travel to Jonesboro at the end of January to defend their numerous state titles from the 2024-2025 season. 

During a time of thanks, the team would like to continue to extend its thanks to the Diane Blair Center for Southern Politics and Society. This team, and its sponsor, strives to support students and build partnerships across campus with all individuals interested in competing, as well as teach students how to produce quality research through their participation in the program. Through the team's travels, it makes every effort to positively represent the U of A across the American South and beyond.

If you are interested in joining the speech and debate program, please contact coach Hannah Morris (hannahm@uark.edu) or president Austin Keefe (akeefe@uark.edu).