Racers Lead the Nation with Double Header Victory in Debate

The Murray State Speech & Debate Union absolutely dominated the competition at the season opener hosted by the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, KY. Seven students brought home eighteen awards from a gruelling two day tournament, and we currently lead the nation in IPDA debate and in speaker awards. 

The SDU won both the novice (first-year) and open division of IPDA debate, and brought home the champion speaker in BOTH divisions.

Freshman competitor Landon Ashcraft was the champion debater AND the top speaker in the novice division. He headed to elimination rounds as the #1 seed in the division, winning an impressive 10/11 of his judges’ ballots. He had a perfect record in elimination rounds, sweeping all six of his judges’ ballots through the semi-final and final rounds.

Sophomore Coleton Boyd was the #3 seed in the varsity division going into his semi-final round, where he upset the #2 seed on a 3-0 decision on his way to finals. Coleton was both the champion debater AND the top speaker in the varsity division.  

As a school, Murray State ranked FIRST in overall debate performance, bringing home the CHAMPION award for debate sweepstakes. All three varsity members ranked top five speakers in the open IPDA division: 

• Champion Speaker - Coleton Boyd

• 4th Place Speaker - Hailey Meshew

• 5th Place Speaker - Essabella Voss

Two of our newcomers also ranked in the top five speakers for the novice IPDA division: 

• Champion Speaker - Landon Ashcraft

• 3rd Place Speaker - Chelsi Patel 

In addition to their outstanding debate performance, our competitors also dominated the speech portion of the competition. Landon Ashcraft was the ONLY novice at the entire tournament to break to finals in extemporaneous speaking. He was also the top performing novice at the tournament in impromptu. Three of the six finalists in extemporaneous speaking AND three of the six finalists in impromptu speaking were from Murray State. Here are their final standings:

Impromptu

• Top Novice in Impromptu Speaking - Landon Ashcraft 

• 2nd Place in Impromptu Speaking - Coleton Boyd

• 4th Place in Impromptu Speaking - Essabella Voss

• 5th Place in Impromptu Speaking - Hailey Meshew

Extemporaneous Speaking

• Top Novice in Extemporaneous Speaking - Landon Ashcraft

• 3rd Place in Extemporaneous Speaking - Coleton Boyd

• 4th Place in Extemporaneous Speaking - Landon Ashcraft

• 5th Place in Extemporaneous Speaking - Essabella Voss

As a school, Murray State ranked 2nd in individual event sweepstakes and 2nd in overall combined sweepstakes (between speech and debate).

Our exceptional early season performance was made possible through the coaching support of our outstanding new assistant directors/graduate assistants, Caleb McCurren and Liam Boardwine. 

Students (left to right): Back Row: Coleton Boyd, Landon Ashcraft Middle Row: Hailey Meshew, Brandon Covington, Essabella Voss Front Row: Chelsi Patel, Hannah Hoelscher

Coleton Boyd, Varsity IPDA Champion, 1st Place Varsity Speaker, 2nd Place Impromptu, and 3rd Place Extemporaneous Speaking