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The Rice Thresher
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by BRIANA COOK FOR THE THRESHER The George R. Brown Forensics Society can safely call itself the best team in the nation. Last weekend, the speech and debate team competed at the Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament hosted by Webster University in St. Louis. The Forensics Society took first place in the speech division and the debate division, the first time Rice has won an overall national title. Along with the national title, Rice also won 9 individual titles and roughly 60 awards. Brown College senior Hiren Patel won the national championship in four separate events: informative speaking, impromptu speaking, after-dinner speaking and communication analysis. He is the first student ever to do this in the history of the tournament. "This is a really big achievement for the team," Patel said. "We all had a lot of fun." A Rice team has never received speech and debate titles at once. In 1997 and 1998 the forensics team won the National Team Championships in debate. The team ranked among the top 10 last year, and two years ago boasted a third-place ranking. Most schools focus primarily on either debate or individual events, whereas the Forensics Society prides itself on competing in both events equally well. "It was a really big team effort, especially in terms of winning the debate at this tournament," Patel said. Every single victory was important for every team going for the national title, Patel said. Two other students won a national championship in other categories. Baker College freshman Dan Henning prevailed in student congress and Lovett College freshman Randy Meissen finished on top in extemporaneous speaking. The team of Hanszen College sophomore Brook Ames, Brown sophomore Chas Cahn and Sid Richardson College freshman Bernadette Cadena also won first place in readers theater. Ames and Lovett junior Jitu Sardar competed in the pentathlon, placing third and eighth, respectively. The pentathlon awards speakers who do well in five different events from each of the three speech genres: public address, limited preparation and interpretation. The Forensics Society will continue competition in the debate nationals competition in Omaha, Neb. next week, and in speech nationals in Lincoln, Neb., next month. - back -
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