The St. Cloud State University Speech & Debate team has had a busy start to the year, competing in tournaments the past three weeks.
SCSU most recently attended a debate tournament at Bethany Lutheran College on Oct. 17. The team of Brian Welch and Tarik Alduri had a 3-0 record before advancing to two elimination rounds. They won the final round and didn’t drop a single ballot throughout the duration of the competition. Sophomore Sid Allen and freshman Sam Lizak teamed up to finish 1-2 overall. Several Huskies received debate speaker awards: Brian Welch (1st), Tarik Alduri (3rd) and Sid Allen (4th).
SCSU also participated in tournaments at Minnesota State University-Mankato on October 14-15. Welsh finished first in parliamentary debate, while freshman Sam O’Brien finished second in Dramatic Interpretation. SCSU received the Schnoor Quality Team Award at the first half of the swing tournaments, and coach Scott Wells was also recognized with the Distinguished Coaching Award for service to the forensics community.
The team opened their season at South Dakota State University on Oct. 7, an event attended by 10 schools from four states. Tarik Alduri led the squad by placing fifth in debate speaker points. Alduri competed in Parliamentary Debate with his partner freshman Ben Tuffour and finished with a 1-2 record. Teammates Spenser Norling and Bryce Daiker also competed and were 2-1 overall.
Participation in Forensics teaches students important public speaking, research, organizational, leadership, group work, and critical thinking skills. The activity is open to any student in good standing. For more information, contact Scott Wells, Director of Forensics, at [email protected] or 320-308-3000.
The forensics team is one of nearly 200 student organizations at SCSU that give students leadership, management, and volunteer service/learning opportunities and which foster an active campus community.
