Members of Chico State’s speech and debate team have qualified to compete in a national forensics tournament in April 2015 at Ohio University.

The team makes up an intercollegiate forensics program. Students compete in cross-examination, policy debate and individual events against other colleges.

Colby Knox, a junior, and Kassandra Bednarski, a sophomore, qualified to attend the National Forensics Association’s tournament because of their performances at the Golden Gate Opener in September.

Knox received first place and Bednarski was selected as a finalist in two novice limited preparation speaking events.

Knox also took fourth place in both of the contest’s impromptu speaking events.

Sue Peterson, the forensics director, said the team had five weeks to prepare for the tournament — a feat for the team because of how little time they had to prepare.

“We have a young team,” Peterson said. “Very few of our competitors have more than a year of experience, and many of them have only one semester prior to the current one, so I’m excited to see what they can do as the year progresses and they get more competitive experience.”

Chico State competed against Butte College, Cal State Northridge, San Jose State and San Francisco State. More than 25 public and private universities participated.

Several other Chico State students received recognition for their performances. Those students were:

• Justin Flick, sophomore, placed fifth in the novice parliamentary debate.
• Kevin Hernandez, sophomore, took first-place honors along with Flick in the novice parliamentary debate.
• Zach Keller, senior, advanced to the semifinals in the novice parliamentary debate.
• Kyle Davis, senior, advanced to the semifinals in the novice parliamentary debate.
• Adrianna McCain, junior, took top novice honors in the after-dinner speaking event.

The team will compete at Lewis & Clark College and Santa Rosa Junior College on Oct. 10-12.

Madison Holmes can be reached at [email protected] or @madisonholmes95 on Twitter.