PLYMOUTH, N.H. — Plymouth State College Speech and Debate Team placed third overall at the 2003 New England Regional Speech and Debate Championship held at PSC last Saturday. It was the best outing of the season for the PSC squad who were edged by only 6 points by Bridgewater State College for second place. Both were nearly 100 points behind Suffolk University who dominated the competition for the fourth year in a row.
Nearly seventy-five students from eight division I, II and III colleges and universities from throughout New England competed for nearly ten hours for the coveted “Chief Bull Throwing Award”. Additionally to Plymouth State, those in attendance included: Bridgewater State College, Franklin Pierce College, Simmons College, St. Anselm College, Suffolk University, University of Rhode Island, and Wheaton College.
Leading off for Plymouth was Carolyn Kravitz who continued her domination of the competition in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Kravitz was the only undefeated debater in a field of 21 that featured some of the best debaters in New England. Kravitz has won 15 of her last 16 preliminary matches and has posted a 26-8 record overall this year, the best single-season record ever for a PSC debater. Will O’Kane also finished in 11th place overall – just 1.5 points behind the 8th place finisher.
Team coach Scott Maltzie explained, “the competition in L/D (debate) was about as close as any tournament I can remember. Going into the final round, only a few of the twenty-one didn’t have a chance to make the ‘Elite-8’. Just ten points separated the 6th seed from the 16th…I just don’t remember it ever being this competitive.”
Unfortunately, in the elimination rounds, Kravitz dropped a close 2-1 decision to Simmons College’s Jennifer Shanley. Shanley went on to defeat Wheaton College’s Alex Dewar in the final round. Nevertheless Kravitz remains one of the favorites at the upcoming National Tournament.
In speech events, Kami McClure placed a surprise 2nd in Impromptu speaking in only her second tournament of competition. She also added two wins to PSC’s debate total.
In Poetry Interpretation, Anna Draves finished with a season-high 2nd place with her piece “And So I Grew Up”. Draves barely edged Jenni Frolkey who also finished with a season-high 3rd place with her piece entitled “Sisters”.
In Prose Interpretation, Krystina Hajduczek also finished 3rd with her humorous pieces “Roweena Cooks Dinner” and “Roweena Gets an Answering Machine”.
The big winner in the speech competition was Suffolk University. Their students took the top three places in overall competition. Leah Phillips took first place; Jenn Richardson and Natasha Benoit rounded out the top three.
As a result of their efforts, five members of the PSC team has now qualified for the National Forensic Association National Tournament held at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana in April.
Maltzie concluded, “This has been a year of ‘almosts’…almost qualifying, almost winning, almost making it to Nationals…today we finally did what it took to get the job done. I couldn’t be prouder of my team.”