Beach Forensics Wins at the Hannie Shaft Invitational at Southwestern College

The last regular season tournament for Beach Forensics’ policy debate team concluded this afternoon, the Hannie Shaft Invitational at Southwestern College.

In the rookie division, the team of Natalie Lahney and Chris Steveson finished with a 3-3 record. At his debut tournament, Chris was recognized as the 4th speaker in the division, an impressive feat considering he joined the squad two weeks ago and was competing against rookies who have debated all season!

In the varsity division, the team of Jaysyn Green and Christian Vazquez finished with a 4-2 record, narrowly missing an elimination round appearance by a slim margin. The team of Georgie Suico and Noah Christiansen finished preliminary debates with a 5-1 record, advancing to elimination rounds as a the top seed at the tournament. Suico and Christiansen were the TOP TWO individual speakers at the tournament, and went on to win the tournament championship! This freshman/freshman team won the season opener tournament in varsity, and ends the regular season with another tournament win!

At the Hannie Shaft, the squad picked up victories over teams from Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton College, Southwestern College, UNLV, and Weber State. It’s worth mentioning that the teams from UNLV and Weber State were among the top 32 teams at the Texas Open last weekend in a field of more than 100 of the nation’s best teams (of which we cannot attend because of the travel ban), and the team of Suico and Christiansen beat those teams twice each, in the preliminary debates and again in elimination debates on their way to the championship.

Beach Forensics looks to keep the momentum going as we gear up for the USC British Parliamentary Championship next weekend, the District I Pacific Championship and National Debate Tournament Qualifier in two weekends, and the PSCFA Spring Championship in two weekends.

For more information on Beach Forensics, check out their website at: https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/communicationstudies/beachforensics/