Grace Laidlaw

Among 30 speech and debate teams, GCU finished runner-up to Concordia University of Irvine, Calif., on Sunday at the Sunset Cliffs Classic Tournament at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Jess Kennedy, Tommee Gleason and Xanthia Clow led the speech team. Kennedy won two events in the novice division and was named the second-ranked speaker of the tournament. Gleason clamed a pair of third-place finishes and reached the finals in two other events and Clow placed third in two events. Two debate pairs (Matthew Calderwood-Grace Laidlaw and Ben Kuykendall-Joseph-Madere) advanced to the top eight.

The GCU Speech and Debate team finished in second-place on Sunday at the Aztec Invitational tournament at San Diego State University. Seniors Tommee Gleason, Xanthia Clow, and Keliann Nash won their respective events for speech competition, while the rest of the speech team placed in the top 6 in 13 out of 18 events. In Debate, seniors Grace Laidlaw and Matthew Calderwood won the varsity division and Ben Kuykendall and Joseph Madere finished second in the novice division

Memorization drills, current events quizzes, mock debates and daily reading throughout the summer boosted Grand Canyon University’s Matthew Calderwood and Grace Laidlaw to a 10th-place finish in the Georgia B. Bowman Invitational last weekend at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. The pair argued successfully about drone use and germ modification.