Northwest University Debaters National Finalists
March 22, 2005
Congratulations to Casey DiGennaro and Jordan Goddard for making final rounds
at the National Parliamentary Debate Association Championships held at Texas Tech University in Lubbocks, Texas
March 17 to 20.
82 colleges and Universities from across the nation brought 242 two person teams to match wit and speaking skill
on topics announced twenty five minutes before each round.
Some of the topics included:
"America's high schools are obsolete."
"A non-nuclear Iran is more dangerous than a nuclear South Korea."
"Resolved: the selection of Howard Dean was a mistake." and
"This House prefers the Cold War era to the post-Cold War era."
First place was won by Lewis and Clark College (Portland), defeating Whitman College (Walla Walla) in the final
round. The final round topic Sunday night was: "Shame on Harvard University."
Earning a 5 to 3 win loss record going into finals, DiGennaro and Goddard reached the second of seven final rounds
before being eliminated in Triple Octa Finals (top 48 out of 242 teams) winning a finalist plaque.
It is the ninth year in a row that Northwest debaters reached finals at the national tournament.
Partial Quadruple Octas: Northwest University (3-0) over Texas State University. Topic: "The AARP is right."
Triple Octa-Finals: Truman State University (3-0) over Northwest University. Topic "A market-based approach
to environmental protection is superior to a legislative-based approach."
It was the third year that top debater Casey Digennaro (21, junior music major from Sitka, Alaska) reached finals
at the national tournament. Last year in Los Angeles and the year before in Portland Digennaro and his partner were
the only Northwest team to break into finals.
Jordan Goddard (27, junior communication major from Kirkland) was recently elected Captain and will lead next year
when the team attends an international tournament in Athens, Greece after Christmas.
Special thanks to Jay and Barbara Congleton for donating a large gift last week to the debate
educational scholarship fund for the Athens trip. Barbara is mother of debate alumnus Paul Nystrom who graduated
in 2000 and represented Northwest at the World Championships in Sydney, Australia that year.
This year's team Captain, Sara Boyd, and her partner first year debater Nathan Chambers also represented
Northwest at the national championship. In the fourth round Boyd and Chambers debated the team from Lewis and Clark
College that went on to win first place. After the debate, which Northwest lost, the Lewis and Clark team praised
the round as one of their best.
Sara Boyd, (21, a senior communication major from Marysville, Washington) was recently selected to be the senior
speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences and runner up for commencement speaker. Sara gave up a full ride scholarship
to Whitman College to transfer to Northwest three years ago. She hopes to pursue a graduate degree in journalism
or law.
Nathan's father, Matthew Chambers and his brother Robin, came to Lubbocks to watch
the debates and give the Northwest team moral support. Matthew Chambers, a pastor in Langley, Washington, is a Northwest
alumnus and was a student 19 years ago when Nathan was a baby. His parents lived in the same housing complex where
Nathan now resides. Nathan,19, is a freshman philosophy major and a first year debater who has achieved notable
success at debate competitions.
