Murdock, debate team win Kentucky state title
Published 1:12 pm Thursday, March 1, 2012
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — The Western Kentucky University Forensics Team, whose members include Frank Murdock of Kingston, won the 2012 Kentucky State Forensics Tournament Feb. 18.
This year’s state tournament was hosted by Berea College in Berea, Ky., south of Lexington.
At the state tournament, Murdock, a senior, placed third in impromptu speaking, quarter-finalist in parliamentary debate (with Spencer Orlowski) and 10th debate speaker.
WKU was crowned the Kentucky State Grand Sweepstakes Champions for the 22nd consecutive year. The Grand Champion Sweepstakes are determined by combining each team’s debate points and their individual events points earned over the course of the weekend.
The team also won the state championship in debate sweepstakes and the state championship in individual events sweepstakes. The state tournament also recognizes the individual success of students competing in at least four events: the quadrathon award.
WKU received all of the top four rankings, with junior Amanda Waid the state champion, junior Mitchell Grogg placing second, senior Khristan Solliday placing third, and freshman Ellis Fraser placing fourth. In all, the team earned 14 individual state championships.
Six members of the WKU Forensics team also traveled to Houston to compete in two tournaments at Rice University. WKU’s squad placed second in overall team sweepstakes, earning six individual tournament championships.
This month, WKU competes at Northwestern University, in DeKalb, Ill., and Bowling Green State University, in Bowling Green, Ohio.
