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ORU debate team wins second place in tournament

By Ally Powell ('13)

Oral Roberts University's debate squad received five awards for a debate tournament that took place Oct. 28-29 in Lee Summit, Mo. Charlie Meadows and Joseph Jackson received second place out of 21 teams.

ORU took three teams to the tournament. Two ORU teams cleared the quarterfinals. Four students won speaker awards including Josh Wagoner who won as third speaker, Sarah Sanford as fourth speaker, Joseph Jackson as fifth speaker and Matthew McAfee as sixth speaker.

"I think the people that we have on the team are excellent," says Agena Farmer, faculty adviser for the debate team. "I believe that this is really a God thing at the time that God had for it to begin, and I am very thankful. The students are working extremely hard, and I am very proud of them.

The team debated over topics such as the U.S. government switching from a republic to a parliament and if the U.S. government should investigate political pressure in conference changes. After receiving the topics, the teams only had 15 minutes to research before beginning the debate.

After the tournament, many judges invited ORU to compete in multiple other tournaments.

"It was an amazing experience. I cannot wait to go back to another one. Once you start debating, it is hard go get it out of your system," says Meadows.

ORU will host a debate duel against Northeastern State University at 3:50 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Graduate Center room 214. This event is open to the public.

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