October 25, 2007
SIUC debate team wins Creighton tourney
Caption follows story
Todd Graham, director of the debate program, said the icing on the cake was that the SIUC duo at this debate was one of the younger combinations of available debaters. In debate, the term "team" has dual meaning. The whole group of students involved in the debate program is the SIUC debate team. At a tournament, a team refers to the pair of students entered in the debate as a combination that will debate together against similar pairs from other universities and colleges. The SIUC debate team could, and sometimes does, enter more than one team in a given debate tournament.
The pair representing the SIUC debate team at the Creighton tournament was Josh Campfield, a freshman in communication from Buckner, Mo., and Adam Testerman, a sophomore in cinema & photography from Springfield, Mo. They were undefeated in the five preliminary rounds of the tournament. They went on to the single-elimination final rounds, winning the whole tournament by beating out a nationally top-ranked team from Western Kentucky University and a highly rated team from Creighton.
"It was kind of unexpected, since our top team is sitting out until second semester due to eligibility reasons," Graham said. "But Adam and Josh are really debating well, and exceeding my expectations."
The last debate of the semester begins Nov. 1 at the University of California at Berkeley. The team will be on the road through much of the Christmas break and debates are on the schedule for the spring 2008 semester.
Caption:
SIUC debate team – Josh Campfield, at left, and Adam Testerman represented the Southern Illinois University Carbondale debate team at the Creighton Open Invitation Debate Tournament in mid October. The pair was undefeated, winning the entire tournament. The trophies in this image are from earlier tournaments in the 2007-2008 debate season.
Photo by Steve Buhman