Texans a Tour de Force at Speech & Debate Nationals

On May 16-23, STOA Speech & Debate hosted the National Invitational Tournament of Champions at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. This year’s nationals hosted 600 students from 29 states. ACTION speech & debate from New Braunfels, took a team of almost a dozen students. The ACTION team had a strong week of competition as noted in the results below. With the Dallas Team placing 4th, Texas teams were 50% of the top six teams!

In addition, MelRae Ambs, a Texas homeschool Mom, was elected to the national board of STOA USA.

Team Policy Debate:

Ellie Ambs/Miliano Mikol – advanced through quarter finals, and placed 6^th in the nation (out of 129 teams)

Lincoln Gillette/Lucie Gillette – advanced through quarter finals, and placed 5^th in the nation

Ellie Ambs competed in two debate events (team policy and parliamentary), plus five speech events. She advanced to quarter finals in all five speeches, and all the way to finals in two of the speeches.

Apologetics – quarterfinalist

Broadcasting – 4^thout of 131

Extemp – quarterfinalist

Motivational – quarterfinalist

Persuasive – 3^rd out of 64

Overall, Ellie finished the year in the top 2% across the nation. She finished 4^th in Texas out of 253.

Lincoln Gillette – competed in two debate events (team policy and parliamentary), plus three speech events.

Expository – 6^th out of 43 He was also 4^th in Texas for the year!

Extemp – quarterfinalist

Persuasive – quarterfinalist

Overall, Lincoln finished the year in the top 3% across the nation, and 8^th in Texas out of 253.

Lucie Gillette competed in two debate events (team policy and parliamentary), plus five speech events. Advanced to finals in three events. She also earned three picket fences at nationals.

Broadcasting – semifinalist

Expository – 5^th out of 43 (1^st in Texas, 6^th in the nation for the year)

Motivational – 4^th out of 52 (1^st in Texas, 5^th in the nation for the year)

Original Oratory – 2^nd out of 108 (1^st in Texas, 1^st in the nation for the year)

Overall, Lucie finished the year as 9^th out of 2091 students across the nation. She finished 1^st in Texas out of 253.

Miliano Mikol competed in two debate events (team policy and parliamentary), plus four speech events. He advanced to quarter finals in apologetics.

Apologetics – quarterfinalist

Overall, Miliano finished the year in the top 3% in the nation, and as 7^th in Texas out of 253.

Will O’Brien competed in two debate events (Lincoln Douglas and parliamentary), plus three speech events.

Duo Interp– 7^th out of 50 (2^nd in Texas, 14^th in the nation for the year)

Persuasive – quarterfinalist

Kara Peterson competed in parliamentary debate plus four speech events.

Duo Interp– 7^th out of 50 (2^nd in Texas, 14^th in the nation for the year)

ACTION had four of the top ten Texas students this year.

Rank	Name	State	Debate Club	Speech Club	Points	Verified Points
1st	Lucie Gillette	TX	ACTION	ACTION	502.012	502.012
4th	Ellie Ambs	TX	ACTION	ACTION	250.142	250.142
7th	Miliano Mikol	TX	ACTION	ACTION	226.674	226.674
8th	Lincoln Gillette	TX	ACTION	ACTION	193.605	193.605