Team and Individual Highlights of the 1995-96 season

  • Details and photos of each tournament.

    • Participation and learning: highest ever

    We reached our goal of 30 students competing in at least one tournament during the year -- since Bethany has an enrollment of 380, that means we had almost 8% of our student body on the Speech Team, a little bit higher than last year. Because these speakers were dedicated and hard workers, almost all team totals went up sharply. Our team members competed in 15 tournaments, speaking in a total of 1028 rounds, more than 170 hours of competitive speaking. That's a lot of learning, and that's always what we are most proud of.

    Major Accomplishments This Year

    30 students active on the team!
    Not only did thirty students gain the experience of speech preparation and competition, but the large number provided a base from which a cadre of highly competitive speakers emerged.
    We began a tradition of speaking in the new chapel!
    The Team will continue to serve in worship from time to time. "My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord." (Ps. 145)
    We hosted our own tournament once again!
    The "Vocal Viking," second half of the Minnesota River Swing with Mankato State University, is becoming a standard fall tournament for many teams in the midwest, including, this year, Bradley who became the national champion.
    We hosted the Minnesota State Tournament!
    Our campus provided fine hospitality and good competition for the top Minnesota college speakers in February.
    We broke regularly against 4-year college competition!
    Formerly it was a rarity for Bethany speakers to reach final rounds in 4-year tournaments. This year it happened a lot, and we even won some of them.
    We won some team trophies!
    In fact, in almost half our tournaments (7 of 15) we took a team trophy, ranging from 6th at Stout to 1st at Normandale.
    We were consistently strong at TCFL!
    We felt some respect in the Twin Cities Forensics League, finishing in the top three at 4 of the 6 tournaments.
    We took our first ever team championship!
    First place at the Normandale Phi Rho Pi Tournament in January - and we won it overwhelmingly.
    We won a State Championship!
    Jen and Rachel's first place in Duo gave Bethany its second ever state event champion. Do you realize how hard that is to do against the kind of competition that fights for those state honors?
    We competed in the Big Schools Division!
    In both state and national tournaments, the size of our entry put us into the Open Divisions, with the big schools, even though we are undoubtedly the smallest school there. That's OK - we have a Big Schools Team.
    We produced three ITs!
    It's tough enough to put one Interpreters' Theatre together. This year we did three different ones, involving 11 speakers.
    We pushed up the numbers like crazy!
    Check our yearbook - you'll find broken records in nearly every event, doubling, even tripling totals from previous years. This was a great Team!
    We had a tough and competitive National Tournament Team!
    Third place at Regionals and measuring up to the best in every round at Chicago - every team member gave performances there that they could remember and be proud of forever.
    We took four national medals!
    That speaks for itself.
    We will co-host the National Tournament next year!
    Together with our friends at Normandale CC, we will be bringing the National Tournament to St. Paul.

    Outstanding Individual Performances

    Katherine Juergens
    1st place PER, SDSU Tournament, 4 November 1995
    Katherine Juergens
    4th place individual sweeps, Normandale Tournament, 27 January 1996
    Jennifer Skala
    3rd place individual sweeps, Normandale Tournament, 27 January 1996
    Rachel Aderman
    2nd place individual sweeps, Normandale Tournament, 27 January 1996
    Paul Meitner
    1st place individual sweeps, Normandale Tournament, 27 January 1996
    Paul Meitner
    1st place POI, TCFL#4, 30 January 1996
    Jennifer Skala and Rachel Aderman
    1st place DUO, TCFL#4, 30 January 1996
    Jennifer Skala and Rachel Aderman
    1st place DUO, MN State Tournament, 17 February 1996
    Sarah Masurka
    1st place IMP, TCFL#5, 20 February 1996
    Nicole Schmugge
    1st place INF, TCFL#6, 5 March 1996
    Sarah Masurka
    Gold individual sweeps, Regionals, 16 March 1996
    Paul Meitner
    Bronze individual sweeps, Regionals, 16 March 1996
    Jennifer Skala
    Bronze individual sweeps, Regionals, 16 March 1996
    Nicole Schmugge
    National Bronze Medalist, INF, Chicago, 13 April 1996
    Jennifer Skala
    National Bronze Medalist, PRO, Chicago, 13 April 1996
    Katherine Juergens
    National Bronze Medalist, CA, Chicago, 13 April 1996
    Katherine Juergens
    National Bronze Medalist, IMP, Chicago, 13 April 1996

    Team members: 30 -- Total rounds: 1028 -- Total breaks: 120

    Special Team Awards 1996

    Return to Speech Team home page.

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    Most recent update 5 August 1996
    Send comments or suggestions to tkuster@blc.edu