Columbia Debaters Rank High At Bay Area Event

Columbia, Ca — The Columbia College Debate Team represented the school well at this past weekend´s Northern California Forensics Association Conference Championships held in Concord.

After three days of competition, four Columbia students won top speaker awards in their respective divisions. Cody Cooper was named the top speaker in the varsity division of the parliamentary debate. In the JV class, Caitlin Macbeth won top speaker honors and Danielle Carmack came in second. Meanwhile, Katie Kelly took second place in the novice division.

The team of Macbeth and Trevor Wittke defeated University of Nevada Reno and University of the Pacific in the semifinals of the varsity division, but then fell to UOP in a rematch.

Cooper and Taureanna Shimp advanced to the quarterfinals of the parliamentary varsity division, and Carmack and Macbeth advanced to the semifinals in the JV parliamentary division.

Columbia College took third place in overall team honors.

Written by BJ Hansen