McKendree’s Speech and Debate Team Kicks Off Season with Back-to-Back Weekend Competitions

(LEBANON, Ill., Oct. 6, 2025) – The McKendree University Speech and Debate team started its season with competitions on back-to-back weekends. On Sept. 20 and 21, the team competed in Lincoln-Douglas style debate in an online tournament hosted by Washburn University. On Sept. 27 and 28, the team competed in National Parliamentary Debate Association style debate in a tournament hosted at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

At Washburn University, students competed individually on the topic “The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its military presence and/or scientific exploration in the Arctic or Antarctic.” Sophomores Victoria Adewole and Ari Carney competed in junior varsity while first-year students Aidan Bradley and Ava Schmollinger competed in novice.

The team’s overall preliminary round record was 13 wins and eight losses, with a mix of wins as both affirmative and negative. Individually, Adewole and Bradley both finished with four wins and two losses, advancing to elimination rounds. Adewole finished in the round of 16 in junior varsity, and Bradley finished in the round of eight in novice. Those elimination round appearances qualified both debaters to compete at this season’s National Forensics Association Championship Tournament.

“This is a great start to the season,” said Brent Nicholson, head debate coach at McKendree University. “We have not competed exclusively in Lincoln-Douglas in recent years, but the students took to it and did the work, which is evidenced in their results. I’m hopeful they’ll take some skills from this experience and translate them into other formats of debate as well.”

At Rice University during the following weekend, the Bearcats were dealt with a setback. Seniors Elan Headlee and Jada Tolbert, sophomores Victoria Adewole, Ari Carney, and C. Houck, and first-year student Aidan Bradley competed in NPDA debate, which features a new topic for each round with only 25 minutes of preparation time. The team entered three partnerships in competition: Adewole and Carney, Bradley and Headlee, and Houck and Tolbert. Unfortunately, all three partnerships finished the preliminary rounds 1-4 and did not advance to the elimination stage.

Despite the results in the win column, the team received good feedback from judges, and spirits were high as the team traveled home.

“This is a hard format of debate and a tournament with a very strong field of competitors. There was no junior varsity or novice division, which meant we competed against students with many years of experience in debate, dating back to high school or even middle school,” Nicholson, speaking to the tournament’s difficulty. “Despite that, we competed well, and the students clearly learned a lot, which we’ll take home with us and try to convert into some more wins next time out.”

The team will next compete in debate events virtually at Lewis & Clark Community College on Oct. 10 and Oct. 11.

 

-McK-