First Seed at Emporia

Mendenhall & Zeigler were the top ranked seed at the Emporia tournament this weekend, without losing a single ballot in prelims. The open team of Ashley Denney & Caitlin Reynolds also cleared to elimination rounds as the 10th seed losing to the University of Texas at Dallas in the Octofinal Debate.

MZ defeated (narrowly), North Texas in the Octofinal, followed by a resounding victory over OU in the Quarter Finals before moving on to a clean win in Semifinals over the same team that had defeated Denney & Reynolds in the Octofinals. The only debate all weekend MZ lost was the final round to Wichita State. Beth & Derek both agreed to come back to Emporia next year to seal the deal.

Other awards of note, Maggie Weller & Steven Seib were the 3rd & 4th speakers respectively in the Junior Varsity division. There is a bright future for them in college debate for sure!