The score difference between Hillsdale’s forensics team and the runner-up at a tournament hosted by Marietta College last weekend was 70 to 21.
Hillsdale won six out of 12 events at the tournament outright, with finalists in four more. Those victories, along with high rankings by every member in preliminary rounds, contributed to the overall score of the team.
“Mission accomplished,” team captain junior Brandon Butz said. “This is what we were waiting for – what we were leading up to all semester.”
Held Nov. 2-3 in Ohio, the tournament pitted small liberal arts colleges against each other. Having competed extensively against teams from larger state schools, Hillsdale’s team members felt prepared for a competition that many on the team described as “a more apples-to-apples comparison.”
“It was very clear that we were the big apple,” Butz said.
He said he was pleased to see that every member of the team contributed points toward the final score.
“Overall our team is enjoying universal success among all its members,” he said.
As of now, six of the team’s nine members have qualified to compete in at least one event at the National Forensics Association’s national tournament in April.
“I don’t think it could have gone much better,” Assistant Director of Forensics and Debate Matthew Warner said.
Junior Christopher Landers led the team in number of awards, taking home a first place trophy in four different events, second in another, and third in a duo speech with junior Kenneth Manyari-Magro, who also won three more awards in different events.
Landers attributes his success to hard work and lots of practice. He said if he makes a mistake six minutes into a speech he is practicing, he will start over from the beginning. He makes sure to do every speech exactly right from start to finish at least once every day.
“I don’t just practice from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. I practice until I get it right,” Landers said.
But for him, it’s a love of the sport that drives his hard work.
“I absolutely love forensics. It’s my favorite thing I’ve done here,” he said. “It’s tough, but it’s rewarding.”
Warner commented on Landers’ work ethic.
“He’s a very serious competitor,” Warner said. “He has a real and true desire to be the best at what he does. And that’s reflected in his preparation for the tournament and the results.”
Landers, who transferred from Grove City College in Pennsylvania after his freshman year, said the team here is more competitive and forms a tighter group of friends, who call themselves the “forensics family.”
Senior Andrew Montgomery placed first in Extemporaneous Speaking and won three other awards. Sophomore Josiah Lippincott, in his first year competing, won three awards in addition to a top novice award. Butz won first in After Dinner Speaking and third in Impromptu Speaking. Finally, freshman Erin Graham took home two awards.
Warner attributed part of the team’s success to the fact that they usually face a much higher level of competition at state schools.
“Intentionally giving ourselves a very, very difficult schedule allows us to be exceptional when compared to other liberal arts colleges,” Warner said.
Landers compared it to NCAA athletics, saying if Hillsdale College and the other teams at Marietta are equivalent to a Division III school, Hillsdale’s team has been playing against Division I and II teams all semester.
However, some of the other teams at the tournament have also competed with bigger schools. What really sets the team apart, Warner said, is the preparation students gain from Hillsdale’s core.
“Forensics is an extension of the liberal arts education, so it makes my job easy,” Warner explained.
Hillsdale’s debate team has also fared well this season – much better, in fact, than Assistant Professor of Speech Matthew Doggett and Captain and senior Ian Hanchett had expected. By early October, all five regular members of the team had qualified for the NFA national tournament.
“Considering we thought this was going to be a pretty bad, sort of rebuilding year, I’m very pleasantly surprised with the fact that, three tournaments in, everyone’s qualified,” Hanchett said. “It’s beyond my wildest hopes for what I would have expected this year.”
Doggett said in an email that despite being a small team that only takes three or four students to a lot of tournaments, the team has averaged four trophies a tournament.
Hillsdale’s debate team won overall in their first tournament of the season, where Hanchett also took first in Lincoln-Douglas style debate. Freshman Graham Deese and sophomore Taylor Wessel have both won novice tournaments since then.
The forensics team has a tournament Saturday, Nov. 9 at Central Michigan University. The next weekend, the forensics and debate teams will travel together to Bowling Green State University to compete.
They still have several tournaments in front of them this season, but both the forensics and debate teams are now eagerly looking forward to the national tournament in April.
