District Debate Team Wins Tournament

The South Orange County Community College District speech and debate team won the Watson-Lancer Invitational tournament earlier this month at Pasadena City College.

The team scored 126 points, nearly double the score of second-place L.A. Valley College. A total of 19 students from Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College won awards.

Debate Coach Gary Rybold said the win was important because of the number of colleges participating.

“To do this well gives us hope that we might be able to repeat as national champions,” Rybold said.

Among the top winners were Natalie Tejada and Robert Lehmann, who won first-place awards in parliamentary debate.

In individual events, Mike Kindybal and Lisa Grossman took first-place awards in the extemporaneous category, Jason Hughes and David Watson won first-place awards in the radio category, and Sandy Betlan captured first-place awards in both the informative and persuasive categories.