Debate team takes third in Mississipi contest

By Staff Reports

The East Texas Baptist University Debate Team competed at the Mississippi College Deep South Debate Tournament December 2-3 and returned home with the 3rd Place overall Sweepstakes trophy. Sweepstakes awards are based on the entire team’s total record in the three debate divisions. ETBU finished only behind LSU-Shreveport and Union University. Other teams competing at the tournament that ETBU bested included Sam Houston State University, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, Louisiana Tech University, and Middle Tennessee State University.

“This is a very impressive finish,” said Dr. Cole Franklin, coach of the ETBU team. “Sweepstakes awards are based on the performance of a team’s top four finishers in each of the three divisions. We only had two competitors in each division. The small size of our team often makes winning sweepstakes awards impossible. This finish is indicative of how well we performed at the tournament.”

Individual members of the team performed very well as well. Franklin recorded a 4-2 preliminary record and advanced to the finals of the Professional division before losing in the championship round. He also won the Mississippi College Lindsay Miller Award which is given to the competitor with the highest total number of speaker points among all divisions at the tournament. LaDarius Carter, ETBU alumnus compiled a 5-1 preliminary record and advanced to the quarterfinals in the Professional division. Carter also won the fifth-place speaker award in the division. Heather Matthews won the second-place speaker award in the Varsity division of the tournament and John Mark Francis, competing in his first tournament in almost two years, compiled a 4-2 preliminary record and advanced to the round of the top 16 in the Novice division before being eliminated from competition. Other ETBU competitors were Nick Wang and Chance Graham.

This was the final tournament of the year for the ETBU team. They will next compete in and co-host a swing tournament with Sam Houston State University February 3-5, 2012 in Huntsville, Texas.