Alan Hoskins
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
College Advancement
The beat keeps going for Kansas City Kansas Community College’s five-time national debate champions.
A win in the Mardi Gras Debate Tournament at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Feb. 21 not only widened KCKCC’s lead in the Community College National Championship Sweepstakes but propelled Coach Darren Elliott’s team into the Top 25 nationally among all two and four-year colleges and universities. The No. 1 ranked community college team, KCKCC is the only community college ranked among the top 25 of all colleges.
The only community college in the Mardi Gras Tournament, KCKCC totally dominated the event by sweeping the first five places in the speaking competition and advancing all three teams to the quarterfinals, two teams to the semifinals and winning the team championship.
The duo of sophomore Charlie Clark and freshman Aaron Thomas defeated the University of Miami Hurricanes by a decisive 3-0 decision in the finals. The final might have been an all-KCKCC final had Clark and Thomas not had to draw their teammates sophomore Miranda Nichols and freshman Mike Slinkerd in the semifinals. By rule, teams from the same college do not compete against each other so Clark and Thomas advanced as the higher seeded team.
All three KCKCC teams compiled 5-1 records in the preliminaries competing against the likes of Miami, North Texas, Wisconsin Oshkosh and Louisiana-Lafayette. Sophomore Noah Fugate and freshman Corey Lande reached the quarterfinals before losing to Miami.
Clark finished first in the Speaking competition with Nichols second, Thomas third, Lande fourth, Fugate fifth and Slinkerd seventh. Also, novice debater Liz Smith finished third in the Novice Division and was fourth best novice speaker.