2018-19 Season
The George R. Brown Forensics Society, Rice’s intercollegiate speech and debate team, finished the Fall semester with 99 awards and has started the Spring semester off with 38 awards! The team has been hard at work representing Rice with excellence in academic competition.
Currently, Rice has the 9th, 20th, and 27th ranked debate teams (composed of two debaters each) in the nation out of 327 ranked teams. Seniors Sonia Torres and Jason Barton are ranked 9th.
Sophomores Annie Chen and Maddy Scannell are ranked 20th, and sophomores Amy Lin and Joel Abraham are ranked 27th. Torres/Barton and Chen/Scannell have qualified for the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, to be held in March.
Speech competitors who have qualified in multiple events for the National Individual Events Tournament, to be held in April:
Isaiah Rodriguez
Lauren Palladino
Gennifer Geer
Cole Lambo
Specific results up to January 21, 2019 are reported below:
Hill Country Swing
Overall Sweepstakes: 1st Place
First Tournament:
11 Schools, 194 entries
Gennifer Geer: 3rd Place Informative Speaking
Second Tournament:
10 schools, 137 entries
Izzy Rodriguez: 1st Place After Dinner Speaking
Gennifer Geer: 1st Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 1st Place Persuasive Speaking
Lauren Palladino: 1st Place Impromptu Speaking; 2nd Place Persuasive Speaking; 2nd Place Informative Speaking; 3rd Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 3rd Place After Dinner Speaking
Coleman Lambo: 3rd Place Informative Speaking
Bria Murray: 3rd Place Persuasive Speaking
Rice University Classic
Hosted by Rice
First Tournament:
11 schools, 108 entries
Tiffany Sloan: 5th Place Programmed Oral Interpretation
Sonia Torres and Jason Barton: Semifinalists, Varsity Debate
Second Tournament:
11 schools, 113 entries
Bria Murray: 3rd Place Extemporaneous Speaking
Alonso Medina: 4th Place Communication Analysis
Coleman Lambo: 4th Place Informative Speaking
Izzy Rodriguez: 4th Place After Dinner Speaking
Lewis & Clark College
22 schools, 56 debate team entries. Best Rice performance at this difficult national circuit tournament in many years.
Sonia Torres and Jason Barton: Semifinalists, Varsity Debate
Amy Lin and Joel Abraham: Semifinalists, Varsity Debate
Alissa Kono and Robert Chen: 2nd Place JV Debate
Alissa Kono: 3rd Overall JV Debate Speaker
Sonia Torres: 6th Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Maddy Scannell: 20th Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Colorado College
8 schools, 137 entries
First Tournament:
Lauren Palladino: 1st Place Impromptu Speaking; 1st Place Persuasive Speaking; 1st Place After Dinner Speaking
Coleman Lambo: 3rd Place Impromptu Speaking; 2nd Place Informative Speaking
Gennifer Geer: 1st Place Informative Speaking; 2nd Place Impromptu Speaking; 1st Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 1st Place Communication Analysi
Summar McGee: 2nd Place Prose Interpretation
Tiffany Sloan: 1st Place Programmed Oral Interpretation
Second Tournament:
Izzy Rodriguez: 2nd Place After Dinner Speaking
Gennifer Geer: 1st Place Impromptu Speaking; 1st Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 2nd 1st Place Communication Analysis
Lauren Palladino: 1st Place Persuasive Speaking 2nd Place Impromptu Speaking; 2nd Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 2nd Place After Dinner Speaking
Coleman Lambo: 2nd Place Informative Speaking; 3rd Place Extemporaneous Speaking
Louisiana State University (LSU)
First Tournament:
8 schools, 119 entries
Gennifer Geer: 3rd Place Communication Analysis; 4th Place Impromptu Speaking; 4th Place Persuasive Speaking
Bria Murray: 2nd Place Persuasive Speaking
Second Tournament:
8 schools, 124 entries
3rd Place Overall Sweepstakes
Gennifer Geer: 2nd Place Communication Analysis; 4th Place Persuasive Speaking
Alonso Medina: 3rd Place Persuasive Speaking
Coleman Lambo: 6th Place Extemporaneous Speaking
University of The Pacific
The team of Sonia Torres and Jason Barton were selected for the prestigious Pat Kennedy Memorial Round Robin, held the day before the main tournament. Torres and Barton reached Semifinals in this difficult field composed of top debaters.
Sonia Torres earned the Top Speaker Award for this select field of debaters.
Jason Barton was 4th Overall Debate Speaker
First Tournament:
Izzy Rodriguez: 3rd Place Informative Speaking; 2nd Place After Dinner Speaking
Alonso Medina: 1st Place Persuasive Speaking
Second Tournament:
Overall Sweepstakes: 1st Place
Overall Swing Sweepstakes (both tournaments combined): 1st Place
Izzy Rodriguez: 2nd Place Overall Individual Events Speaker; 2nd Place Informative Speaking; 2nd Place Extemporaneous Speaking
Lauren Palladino: 1st Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 2nd Place After Dinner Speaking
Debate:
Alina Zhu: 8th Overall JV Debate Speaker
Robert Chen: 7th Overall JV Debate Speaker
Kia Witt: 4th Overall JV Debate Speaker
Alissa Kono: 2nd Overall JV Debate Speaker
Maddy Scannell: 10th Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Annie Chen: 9th Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Joel Abraham: 6th Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Amy Lin: 4th Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Jason Barton: 3rd Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Sonia Torres: 2nd Overall Varsity Debate Speaker
Alina Zhu and Kia Witt: Quarterfinalists, JV Debate
Sonia Torres and Jason Barton: Quarterfinalists, Varsity Debate
Amy Lin and Joel Abraham: Quarterfinalists, Varsity Debate
Annie Chen and Maddy Scannell: 2nd Place Varsity Debate.
Washburn University
10 schools, 27 debate team entries
Rice Won 8 separate debates.
Sonia Torres and Jason Barton: Octafinalists, Varsity Debate
Prairie View A&M University
First Tournament:
Izzy Rodriguez: 1st Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 2nd Place Prose Interpretation
2nd Tournament: 2nd Place Extemporaneous Speaking
Texas Two-Step Tournament in Denton, TX 1/4-6/2019
Overall Sweepstakes: 2nd Place
First Tournament:
Jason Barton: 4th Overall Debate Speaker
Sonia Torres: 5th Overall Debate Speaker
Maddy Scannell: 15th Overall Debate Speaker
Annie Chen: 18th Overall Debate Speaker
Sonia Torres and Jason Barton: Semifinalists, Varsity Debate
Annie Chen and Maddy Scannell: Semifinalists, Varsity Debate
Alissa Kono and Robert Chen: Octafinalists, Varsity Debate
Overall Rice won 17 separate debates
Second Tournament
Sonia Torres: 7th Overall Debate Speaker
Annie Chen: 10th Overall Debate Speaker
Maddy Scannell 14th Overall Debate Speaker
Sonia Torres and Jason Barton: Quarterfinalists, Varsity Debate
Annie Chen and Maddy Scannell: Quarterfinalists, Varsity Debate
Amy Lin and Joel Abraham: Quarterfinalists, Varsity Debate
Overall Rice won 18 separate debates
University of Florida, 1/19-20
Overall Sweepstakes: 2nd Place
First tournament:
Sweepstakes: 2nd Place
Cole Lambo: 6th Place Informative Speaking
Lauren Palladino: 1st Place Impromptu Speaking; 2nd Place After Dinner Speaking
Tiffany Sloan: 6th Place Programmed Oral Interpretation
Gennifer Geer: 2nd Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 2nd Place Persuasive Speaking; 4th Place Communication Analysis; 2nd Place Overall Individual Speaker
Second Tournament:
Sweepstakes: 2nd Place
Lauren Palladino: 1st Place, After Dinner Speaking; 3rd Place Impromptu Speaking; 2nd Place Extemporaneous Speaking
Gennifer Geer: 1st Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 1st Place Communication Analysis; 2nd Place Impromptu Speaking; 3rd Place Overall Speaker
Izzy Rodriguez: 5th Place Extemporaneous Speaking; 5th Place After Dinner Speaking
Cole Lambo: 6th Place Extemporaneous Speaking
Tiffany Sloan: Top Novice in Prose interpretation; Top Novice in Programmed Oral Interpretation.
The team is coached by HUMA faculty members David Worth and Shannon LaBove.