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Show SU debaters place 4th at national tournev CEDAR CITY Southern Utah State College debaters James Wentz and Kyle Young have made their mark in SUSC's "forensic success book" as fourth place winners of the National Junior Division Debate Tournament conducted recently at Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kan. Wentz, a SUSC sophomore with a double major in communications and business, finished the nationals ranked fourth in speaker points. He is a 1980 graduate of Orem High School. Young, a freshman majoring in engineering and communications, is a 1981 graduate of Lehi High School. "If Wentz and Young hadn't met Amarillo College's Kristi Rash and Scott Latimer, they'd have a good chance at the first place trophy," said M.L. Smith, SUSC forensic coach. "The Amarillo team has been a strumbling block, a real nemesis, for the SUSC team all year long." Three SUSC teams made the 2,600-mile round-trip drive to the nationals in Kuntucky. The teams of Karl Powell and Debby Smith, and Jessica Barton and Vince Meldrum didn't break into the finals. "They're both freshman teams," Smith said, "and both succumbed to pressures from more experienced second-year debaters." Wentz, Smith said, went into the tournament with a mental toughness that he put to best advantage ad-vantage for SUSC. I "He was the only sophomore and had a little more long-term expertise," the coach said. The SUSC teams competed against 26 other schools, 41 other teams for tournament honors. Most of the schools were from the West and Midwest, including in-cluding teams from Arizona State University, University of Colorado, Emporia State University, Univer-sity, Kansas University, Northwest Missouri, University of Nebraska, Amarillo College and the University of Wyoming. Last year two SUSC teams made it to the octa-finals octa-finals in junior competition. com-petition. Jackie Clegg and Chris Lathrop competing now in the Srnior NDT Nationals as a team debated last year, respectively with Denise Brooks and Kevin Astle. Both Brooks and Astle are on LDS missions. SUSC debaters Kyle Young (left) and James Wentz finished fourth place at l.hp KnMrMinl Intiiro riiiicijin HaWuln t.iiMni x mm Tournament conducted recently. Wentz also finished fourth in speaker points. |