Written By: Dr. Michael Eaves
VSU Debate Team Press Release on the 2021 Gorlok Gala Invitational Forensics Tournament:
This past weekend, the VSU debate team competed in the 2021 Gorlok Gala Invitational Forensics Tournament, an annual tournament that VSU has competed in over a dozen times. This year, VSU entered three debaters in IPDA debate, one in the Novice division and two in the Junior Varsity division, with each division having 24 competitors each.
VSU finished the tournament with championship titles in two divisions of debate. Individual records are listed below:
Autumn Wibright was ranked first seed with a record of 5-1 in preliminary rounds, won first place speaker award, and finished the tournament as the Novice IPDA champion.
Yetunde Oluwadare finished in the Junior Varsity division of IPDA with a 3-3 preliminary round record.
Vanessa Okojie was ranked sixth seed with a record of 4-2 in preliminary rounds, won fourth place speaker award, and finished the tournament as the Junior Varsity IPDA champion.
In VSU’s long history of attending the Gorlok Gala Invitational Forensics Tournament, this is not only the first time that VSU has been represented in finals at this highly competitive tournament, but this weekend, VSU Debate went above and beyond in securing two championships.
Next weekend (February 6-7), VSU will be hosting the Blazer Classic Debate Tournament.