Kansas City Kansas Community College’s 9-time national debate champions are off to another rousing start.
Competing in three season-opening tournaments, KCKCC swept top honors in a College Policy Junior Varsity tournament at the University Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and tied for fifth in a pair of Parliamentary Debate tournaments at William Jewell College in Liberty.
“You could not ask for a better start than taking first and second in one tournament and tying for fifth in the two toughest parliamentary debate tournaments in the country,” said head coach Darren Elliott.
The William Jewell tournament drew 96 competitors, almost of all of whom were from four-year teams from all over the U.S. including the universities of Texas, California, Oregon and Washington State.
Sophomores Ryan McFarland of Hutchinson and Evan Johnson of Wichita East competed in the William Jewell tournament, compiling a 4-1 record in the preliminaries in the opening Lane Classic.
In the Double Octo final round, they took a 3-0 opening win before losing to Oregon in the Sweet 16.
In the second tournament, the Bowman Classic, McFarland and Johnson had to battle back from a pair of opening losses.
Winning their next three, they reached the elimination rounds where they defeated the University of Texas-Tyler before a narrow 2-1 loss in the round of 16. McFarland received the 15th speaker award and Johnson 20th in the Bowman Classic.
The duos of sophomore Justin Parks of Hutchinson and freshman Payton Cummings of Washburn Rural and sophomore Marin Loken of Sacramento, Calif., and freshman Alex Glanzman of Lawrence swept all the top honors at the JV tournament at UNI.
Both teams were undefeated with 6-0 records in the preliminary rounds. As the No. 1 seed, Parks and Cummings did not have to compete in the first round of the finals while Loken and Glanzman defeated Augustana College 3-0.
Both teams then won 2-1 semifinal decisions and because both were from KCKCC, no final round was held and Parks and Cummings werte awarded first place; Loken and Glanzman second.
In addition, Cummings was named top speaker with Parks second. It was the second straight year KCKCC took top honors.
“It’s hard to believe we topped last year but having two teams close out the final round is a great start to the season,” said assistant coach Scott Elliott.
