Whitman Forensics Newsletter
Vol. 14, No. 2, May 2008
|
Luke Sanford made it to quarterfinals at CEDA Nationals.
Nate Cohn made it to octafinals at CEDA National and to doubles at the NDT. |
Policy
Teams come alive at the end of the Year! The Policy teams
had a tough second semester beginning with a rough start at the Cal Swing and
Berkeley tournaments. Senior Eric Chalfant was not
able to attend, and three of our teams missed breaking on speaker points at
the USC tournament. The entire team went 3-3 at Berkeley which, while
certainly not bad, was disappointing. The team went into a funk. Hunter
seemed to empty out in the cold, dark winter of Walla Walla. Things didn’t
improve much at the Texas tournament. Eric was back in action but he and Mike
went 5-3 and missed on points; our two other teams went 4-4. Again, a
respectable performance but not where we wanted to be. Hunter remained, for
the most part, empty, lifeless. Then, with
Northwest CEDA Championships approaching, the team got the fire back. Hunter
came alive. The prep rooms were as busy as ever, and everyone |
|
|||||||
|
put forward a great effort. And, the results
started pouring in. At Northwest CEDA Champs, four teams advanced. Senior
Eric Chalfant took the coveted Becky Galentine top speaker award, and with senior partner Mike
Meredith, placed second. Sophomore Nate Cohn and Frosh Daniel Straus and
Juniors Sam Allen and Luke Sanford were in Semis. Frosh Jonathan Dentler and Sophomore Robby White (WWCC) were in partial octas. Then Nate and
Daniel brought the house down at the Frosh-Sophomore National Championship,
going 7-0 and advancing to semi-finals. Nate was the top speaker. |
The team at the NDT: Mike, Jim, Ross, Aaron, Daniel, Nate,
Eric, and Ben. |
|
|||||||
|
The great results
didn’t stop. With six teams attending CEDA nationals in Wichita, and despite
the cold weather in Kansas, we came up with the best result of the season – five
teams reaching elimination rounds, including an Octas
(Nate and Daniel) and Quarters (Luke and Sam) appearance plus Jonathan and
Robby in Triples and Nick and Spencer and Eric and Mike in Doubles. Whitman
did better than any other school in the nation. |
|
||||||||
|
It set a great
tone for the NDT, which was held at Fullerton where, fortunately, it was a
little warmer. The tournament is always long and arduous, but both teams in
attendance, Eric and Mike and Nate and Daniel, fought hard. Eric and Mike had
a 31st place showing and Nate and Daniel had a rematch of last
year’s elim round against the Mapes
from Missouri State. While the whole
team was hoping for history to repeat itself, we lost on a 3-2, which took
longer than any other decision at the tournament. Despite losing, all the
judges said that Whitman debated fantastic, and the whole team could feel
proud of a fine end to the season. |
Allison Ikeda |
|
|||||||
|
Nigel reacts with frustration at the delays from the NPDA
Protests. |
Debate
Costumes About two weeks
before the Whitman Classic tournament, some competitors from around the
Northwest approached Rob with an idea for the tournament party. They wanted
it to be a themed function: an impact party. Each attendee was required to dress
as their favorite debate impact. Being the open-minded coaches that they are,
Rob and Jim consented. Competitors arrived as impacts as diverse as nuclear
war, grey goo, and US hegemony. The idea behind the theme was that debaters
are constantly talking about these serious problems, why not wear them!
Perhaps unconventional but definitely fitting and fitting only for the debate
community, the party was well liked and actually sparked some good
discussion. |
|
|||||||
|
NPDA
Nationals Sparks Protests! This year, the
NPDA national tournament was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado on the campus
of the United States Air Force Academy. Overall, our teams did well, with
Dave Mathews advancing to triples, but the tournament bordered on a debacle
with rounds running hours and hours behind schedule. Here’s what happened:
the tab room decided that teams would have exactly 25 minutes to prepare
their arguments, but unlike previous years, if a team was even 30 seconds
late they were forced to forfeit. This new rule, meant to save time, resulted
in a three hour delay on Saturday. Teams that were forced to forfeit on
Saturday appealed, forcing the tournament administrators into long
discussions about their situations thus delaying the tournament even though
no one won those appeals. Then, on Sunday, a two hour delay occurred because
a team reported a sexual harassment claim against a team that read a case
about sexual liberation. Fortunately, none of our teams including Dave, Amy
Soderquist and Annie Hickman, Joel Wilson and Chris Fleming, and Nigel
Leslie-Ramoz-Leslie and Maile
Zeng were involved in any of the challenges! |
|
||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Jim Hanson Aaron
Hardy
Rob Olsen
Nav Aujla and
Christine Simbolon Staff: Jim Hanson, Director of Forensics, Aaron Hardy, Policy Coach; Rob
Olsen, Parliamentary and I.E. Coach; Ross Richendrfer,
Assistant Policy Coach; Christine Simbolon and Navdeep Aujla, Student
Assistants; Bob Withycombe, Professor, Rhetoric and
Film Studies; Lori Bettison-Varga, Provost and Dean
of Faculty, Chuck Cleveland, Dean of Students; and George Bridges, President,
Whitman College. 43 Competitors,
Fall 2007-Spring 2008: Allison Ikeda, Amy Soderquist,
Annie Hickman, Cat Valverde, Chris Fleming, Chris Fryefield, Daniel Straus, Dave Mathews, Eric Chalfant, Gary Wang, Jeff Wilson, Joel Wilson, Jon Handwerk, Jonathan Dentler,
Kristen Coverdale, Lawrence Grandpre, Lewis Silver, Luke Sanford, Maile Zeng, Mike Meredith, Nate
Cohn, Nick Griffin, Nigel Ramoz-Leslie, Roman Goerss, Ryan Lum, Sam Allen,
Sarah Golden, Spencer Janyk, with Robby White
(WWCC) plus Alexander Higgins, Christopher Huong,
Gary Yuman Wang, Kyle Cotler
Lauren Guest, Luke Hagel, Matthew Bingham, Matthew
Duncan, Maryn Juergens,
Natalie Popovich, Roman Goerss,
Russell Caditz-Peck, Sarah Deming. IM
DEBATES Jim now runs the
Intramural Debates, in its 14th year since being resurrected back
in 1994. The students at
the Championship tournament debated the resolution consuming political hacks
across the country (well, at that time it was): Should Hillary Clinton or
should Barack Obama be the Democratic nominee? A new format brought in even
more competitors. In the experienced division, former team members Gary Wang
took first place while Sally Sorte took second. Sam
Hennessey and David Ogle were in semis. In inexperienced, Eli Asche from Jim’s 110 class defeated future team member
Harry Hixon in finals. Jackson Cahn and Liz Sher were in semis. Kyle Cotler,
Matt Duncan, and Kyl Wellman were in partial
quarters. Vanessa Cox, Aisha Fukushima, and Aubrey Gallagos
were in partial octas. Everyone won cash prizes and
ate pizza that was, unfortunately, arrived very late in a major delivery
snafu. |
Senior
and Coach Loss
But returning . . .
Seniors graduating: Mike, and Annie.
Seniors graduating: Eric, Maile, Chris, Eric Chalfant’s Eye Most competitive activities
carry some risk of physical injury to the participants. We’re all accustomed
to hearing about college athletes needing to sit out a game or two from a
sprained ankle or bruised rib. Debate, however, isn’t usually thought
to carry much in the way of injury potential. Unfortunately, that was proven
wrong when senior Eric Chalfant, who had been
seeing scatterings of black dots in one of his eyes and had been to two
doctors, lost sight in his eye when he returned home at the end of the fall
semester. When he went to doctors on the west side, they realized he had a
tumor in his eye and he had to go in for eye surgery. It remains unclear
whether his eye tumor was the result of marathon card-cutting sessions,
endless drills reading late into the night, or those
ridiculous 5 hour energy drinks that Eric had tried early in the first
semester but it’s certainly possible. J
Either way, Eric was not able to attend the Cal Swing during the
winter break and the whole team missed him in Los Angeles. His partner
Mike Meredith wasn’t slowed down, however. He competed maverick at both USC
and Fullerton, and would have reached the elimination rounds
if not disqualified from competing in out-rounds by tournament rules.
Eric returned for the Berkeley tournament with a very red eye and blurry
vision but the team was very happy to see him and
apparently so were the judges as he won a speaker award.
Mike and Eric at NW CEDA Champs. Hardy
Rips into the Team This year, the
policy team is graduating two seniors – Eric Chalfant
and Mike Meredith. In keeping with tradition, that meant a large amount of
friendly ribbing as their careers came to a close. In particular, Eric and
Mike were treated to a full-bore roasting at Northwest CEDA champs by Aaron
Hardy. While not as long as some apocryphal roasts in years past, it was
agreed by all involved that the roasts were...epic (translation, Aaron
concocted some of the most vile and hilarious commentary about these two you
can imagine). With so much material to choose from, it’s not a surprise. Another
time-honored opportunity to make fun of people is the yearly team awards” at
the end of year party. This time, not just seniors had to suffer. Even
though Hardy was out of town for the party, he sent in the team awards by
video to play for the whole party. Everyone had to take a little
indignity – although everyone is still wondering what Luke’s award was,
delivered entirely in Chinese. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Frosh wins Dovell-Gose Contest
Joel, 1st Nate, 2nd
Sally, 5th The annual Dovell-Gose oratory contest,
established in 1918, saw another upset this year. This time, first year Joel
Wilson, who somewhat cockily preceded his speech with the claim “I’m going to
win” proceeded to do just that. His speech on overly zealous drunk driving
laws was convincing and intriguing to Jim, sole judge, and earned him first
place. Jim thought Joel was a clear winner though he thought sophomore Nate
Cohn’s speech on Southern re-re-construction was very humorous and well done
and that Gary Wang’s speech on racially biased media coverage of the NBA,
while getting off to a so-so start, built up to a well argued speech. Also
winning awards were Dave Mathews (Body Modifications), Sally Sorte (Online Dating), Chris Fleming (Paintings
challenging conventions), Annie Hickman (Blackface, Irony, and Race) and Amy Soderquist (Space Cults). Winners receive cash prizes. NW CEDA Champs Jim brought in
teams from Kansas, Missouri, California, Wyoming, Idaho, and Connecticut. Plans
are to expand the tournament further for 2009. Senior Eric Chalfant won the coveted Becky Galantine award for being
top speaker. He and partner Mike Meredith placed second and Nate and Daniel
and Sam and Luke were in semis; Jonathan and Robby were in partial-octas. Coaches enjoyed a great party at Bob’s house.
Jonathan Daniel
Sarah
Nick Robby
Amy |
Party
at Jim’s! It is that time of
year again, when the flowers are in bloom, when the school children are
running the beer mile, and when the team gathers at Jim’s house to celebrate
the end of another great year. The party was a success as always, with Jim
back at the chef’s helm with his time tested recipes for ravioli, corn on the
cob, ribs, and multiple desserts filling our stomachs. The food was great,
but the entertainment surpassed everything. The party started slow, but
eventually the board games took over; Pictionary was this year’s game of
choice. Coach Rob Olsen along with seniors Eric Chalfant
and Chris Fryefield took on, and lost to, the team
of first years Chris Fleming and Nigel Leslie-Ramoz-Leslie
and junior Sarah Golden. After the games, the team watched some television
while enjoying Jim’s food. The night ended with individual awards from Rob
and Aaron who presented via videos he made and sent from Texas.
Jim and Bob Joel and
Annie
Maile and Dave Annie and Jim at Knotts Berry
Alicia and Amy and
Dave with Snoopy Aunt Alicia Even though the
team was down one debater for a few weeks, the squad got an honorary member
for the Cal Swing. Alicia Hunt, a friend of the team, flew in from
Michigan to help out for both tournaments. Despite not being actively
involved in college debate, Alicia was an enormous help, judging, coaching,
tracking down intel, making sure everyone was fed
and happy, and helping everyone cheer up when they lost a debate. She even
brought a slightly risqué board game for New Years Eve. The whole team
played, even though the rules didn’t make much sense – and everyone had a
great time explaining the jokes to Jim and Dave Matthews. Alicia was also a
big help on the day off between the USC and Fullerton tournaments. When most
of the team went down to the beach near Fullerton, a few of the debaters
decided it would be a good idea to swim in the ocean. Alicia helped
calm Jim’s nerves when he was certain Luke would drown, and then bought the
whole team hot chocolate to prevent anyone from getting hypothermia when we
got out of the freezing cold water. Unfortunately, there was nothing
she could do to prevent two large parking tickets for the vans when we forgot
to pay at the lot entrance. At the Whitman Classic:
Chris, Maile, Sarah The Candle Trophies
Nigel wtith the soup
Jon |
||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Contributions to the Team We are grateful for your contributions
to the forensic team! Generous donors December 1, 2007 through May 15, 2008
include: Anjali
S. Vats, Barbara and Rodney D. Orth, Beth Elyse Schueler, Brian Marshall Simmonds,
Bridget Suzanne Kustin, C. Lawrence and Priscilla
Lutcher, CDR Carolynn M. Snyder, David J. W. Hackett, Emily Ruth Cordo, Hildred and David H.
Allard, James B. Hanson, Janice Sandra Berman, Jennifer Becker and Andrew Backlund, John Barto McEntire IV, Joshua Ian Penn Boris, Kathryn Ann Bergh,
Louise C. and James L. Abbott, Meghan Ann Hughes, Microsoft Corporation,
Nicole A. and Matthew P. Levin, Peter Benjamin Stiffler,
PG&E Corporation Foundation, Robert C. Brinton, Robert M. Withycombe, Ryan James Hagemann,
Samantha Gabriel Howell, Sara and Stephen C. Rowe, Stephen Craig Reed,
Theodore Braden Blank V, William E. Abel. If we missed you, please tell us. We do appreciate your
support! |
Ross with alums Eric Suni and Ben Meiches. All three helped
the team this year. |
|
Send
contributions for Debate to Annual Fund Office; Whitman College; Walla Walla WA 99362 Checks should be made out to Whitman
College with a note that says to place the contribution into one of the
Debate Team Funds (Salzman-Medica, Withycombe, Walker, or just say “For Debate”). |
|
|
Nick, Spencer, Annie, Amy, Dave, Rob at Knott’s Berry Farm. |
Long
Beach While it rained, snowed, and 70 mile per hour winds hit Whitman and the
rest of Washington, the parli team was at the CSU Long
Beach tournament, where Senior Annie Hickman and Sophomore Amy Soderquist debated with Sophomore David Mathews and First
Year Nick Griffin. The tournament went well, but the post tournament fun at
Knott’s Berry Farm was quite a treat. While at the theme park, they tried
every ride, from the monstrous roller coasters, to the more mundane and
informative rides to fulfill Jim’s wishes. Some of the more adventurous rides
included Xcelerator that goes 82mph in 2.3 seconds
and the Supreme Scream that drops the rider straight down 254 |
|
vertical feet. Those thrill rides contrast with
Jim’s Calico Mine Train Ride and the 30 minute long Native American
storyteller in the Mystery Lodge. The trip was capped off with a delicious
dinner and was a lot of fun. |
|
|
Policy
Awards ALLISON IKEDA AND GARY WANG: Pepperdine, JV, 4-2. ALLISON IKEDA AND NIGEL RAMOZ-LESLIE: WNPT, JV, SEMIS. DANIEL STRAUS AND NATE COHN: USC 4-3, NW CEDA Champs, SEMIS,
Frosh-Sophomore Nationals, SEMIS, CEDA Nationals, OCTAS, NDT, DOUBLES. DAVE MATHEWS AND LEWIS SILVER: Pepperdine, 4-2; WNPT, QUARTERS. ERIC CHALFANT AND MIKE MEREDITH: Gonzaga, QUARTERS; Kentucky, 5-3, Harvard,
5-3, Wake Forest, 5-3, USC 4-3 (Mike solo), NW CEDA Champs SECOND, CEDA
Nationals DOUBLES, NDT 31ST. JONATHAN DENTLER AND ROBBY WHITE (WWCC): Pepperdine, 4-2; WNPT, FIRST, NW CEDA
Champs, OCTAS, CEDA Nationals, TRIPLES. LUKE SANFORD AND DANIEL STRAUS: Gonzaga, OCTAS; Kentucky, 5-3; Pepperdine,
5-1. LUKE SANFORD AND SAM ALLEN: USC 4-3, NW CEDA Champs, SEMIS, CEDA
Nationals, QUARTERS. NATE COHN AND SAM ALLEN: Gonzaga, OCTAS. SPENCER JANYK AND NICK GRIFFIN: WNPT, FIRST, CEDA Nationals, DOUBLES. |
|
Parli and
IE Awards AMY
SODERQUIST, WWU, Jr Extemp, SEMIS, Lewis and
Clark, Jr Extemp, SIXTH,
Whitman Classic 2, Jr Extemp,
FOURTH. AMY
SODERQUIST AND NICK GRIFFIN:
Whitman Classic 2 JR FIRST. ANNIE
HICKMAN AND JOEL WILSON: Reed, DOUBLES. CAT
VALVERDE AND RYAN LUM: Reed,
Novice, FIRST. CAT
VALVERDE, Lewis and Clark,
Jr Extemp, FIFTH. CHRIS
FLEMING: WWU, Jr Impromptu, FIFTH, Whitman Classic 2, Jr Impromptu, FIRST. CHRIS
FLEMING AND JOEL WILSON:
WWU JR, FIRST, Whitman Classic 2 JR, SEMIS. CHRIS
FRYEFIELD AND AMY SODERQUIST: Reed, QUARTERS. CHRIS
FRYEFIELD: Lewis and
Clark, Sr Extemp, SECOND,
Whitman Classic 2, Sr Extemp,
SECOND. DAVE
MATHEWS: NPDA Nationals,
TRIPLES. JEFF
WILSON AND CHRIS FLEMING:
Reed, SEMIS. JOEL
WILSON, Lewis and Clark, Jr Impromptu, THIRD, Whitman Classic 2 Jr Impromptu, FOURTH. JON
HANDWERK AND SARAH GOLDEN: WWU
JR, OCTAS. KRISTEN
COVERDALE AND JON HANDWERK:
Lewis and Clark, SEMIS. KRISTEN
COVERDALE, Lewis and
Clark, Novice Impromptu, SECOND. MAILE
ZENG, Lewis and Clark, Nov
Extemp, THIRD, WWU, Nov Extemp,
SECOND, Whitman Classic, Open Extemp, SIXTH. NIGEL
RAMOZ-LESLIE AND MAILE ZENG:
Lewis and Clark, JR, QUARTERS, UPS JR, SECOND, WWU JR OCTAS, Whitman Classic
2 JR FIRST. NIGEL
RAMOZ-LESLIE, Lewis and
Clark, Novice Impromptu, SIXTH, WWU, Novice Impromptu, FOURTH, Whitman
Classic 2, Jr Impromptu SECOND. ROMAN
GOERSS AND SARAH GOLDEN: WHITMAN
CLASSIC 2 JR, QUARTERS. SARAH
GOLDEN: Whitman Classic 2,
Jr Exempt, SECOND. RYAN
LUM, Lewis and Clark,
Novice Impromptu, FIFTH. |
|
Roman
Chris Maile
Thad and Ross
Chris Amy and Sarah
Lewis
Andrew |
