UK Speech and Debate Places Third at Butler University's Bulldog Battle

The University of Kentucky Speech and Debate Team traveled to Butler University this past weekend and placed third at the Bulldog Battle Speech and Debate Tournament. This year, 14 schools representing four different states took part in the competition. Many of these teams are nationally ranked which made for a challenging tournament in many of the team’s events.

“Tough competitions like this are essential,” Coach Timothy Bill said. “The only way to prepare for nationals is to seek out the best teams as often and as early as we can each semester. We’ll learn what we used this weekend to get even better over the next few months.”

UK’s third place showing was made possible by numerous individual performances in each of the team’s events. Junior Matt Karijolic and senior Rachel Brase succeeded in placing fifth and sixth respectively in the individual sweepstakes competition based off their cumulative scores at the tournament. Brase won the long-read-response speaking event and Karijolic won rhetorical criticism. Additionally, the team qualified another speech for nationals bringing the season to a record total of 33 qualifications.

View the total list of awards won at the tournament here.

The UK Speech and Debate Team is committed to training the next generation of civic leaders who are passionate about effecting change in their communities. The team’s next competition will be the Hatfield and McCoy Swing held Feb. 9-11 at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. UK Speech and Debate is a student organization in the School of Information Science in the College of Communication and Information. To find out more, please visit the team’s website www.ukforensics.com.