Schiffmayer and Xu
Grove City College Debate Team members captured a national championship over the weekend at the Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament at West Chester (Pa.) University.
Freshmen Ginger Schiffmayer of Evergreen, Colo., and Joshua Xu of Pearland, Texas, were crowned the champions of NPDA (National Parliamentary Debate Association) debate.
Coach Jason Edwards, professor of History, said their team win was “a particularly astounding feat as they did this in the Open/Varsity division despite being first year freshmen and thereby novices.”
The PKD National is the largest comprehensive forensics tournament in the world, with 37 colleges and universities competing in 2023..
Grove City College sent 11 students to compete in both NPDA (team) and International Parliamentary Debate Association (individual) debate formats. GCC’s Debate Team took second place for the Tier One Debate Sweepstakes due to great performances up and down the line-up.
Sophomore Lauren Travieso of Honolulu, Hawaii, fell one win shy of being the national champion in the junior varsity division of IPDA and senior captain Sebastian Anastasi of Grove City was named the tournament’s third best varsity speaker in IPDA. Others on the team broke into the out rounds, putting them in the top 16 of competitors for their divisions.
Grove City College’s tournament team also included: Collin Alexander. Benjamin Anastasi, Elizabeth (Karns) Anastasi, Justus Carnley, Alaina Donnell, Eden Kleiman (captain), and Priya Petty.
The PKD National was the team’s penultimate tournament appearance of the debate season, which wraps up with next month’s National Educational Debate Association faceoff at the University of Dayton, Ohio.