January 31, 2005

Boise State Talkin' Broncos Win Conference Championship

The Boise State University debate and speech team won the 2004-05 Northwest Forensics Conference Division I championship at the final conference tournament of the season,  held Jan. 27-29  at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore.   The Talkin’ Broncos wrapped up their second conference title in three years and set a new school record for conference points earned in a season. Boise State scored 607 points at the season’s three conference tournaments. Lewis & Clark College (Ore.) finished second with 459 points and Whitman College (Wash.) was third with 287 points. The Northwest Forensics Conference is an affiliation of 44 colleges and universities from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Northern California, Oregon, Utah and Washington.   Three individual performances at the Pacific University tournament paced Boise State’s record-setting effort. Team co-captain Annah Merkley (senior, Pocatello) finished first in Rhetorical Analysis, second in Program Oral Interpretation, third in Poetry Interpretation and fourth in Prose Interpretation. Krista King (junior, Boise) won novice Informative Speaking, teamed with Scott Nelson (senior, American Falls) to place second in novice Parliamentary Debate, finished fourth in novice Persuasive Speaking and placed fifth in Prose Interpretation. Co-captain Lacey Rammell-O’Brien (senior, Eagle) finished first in Original Interpretation, fourth in Speech to Entertain and fifth in Informative Speaking.   Performances by several other Boise State competitors secured the conference title.  Nancy Henke (senior, Boise) placed second in both open Persuasive Speaking and open Informative Speaking. Barton Jackson (sophomore, Eagle) finished second in junior Persuasive Speaking, fourth in Impromptu Speaking and sixth in Prose Interpretation. Nelson, in addition to his second–place finish in debate, placed third in Rhetorical Analysis and fourth in junior Persuasive Speaking. Hillary Davidson (junior, Spokane) won Poetry Interpretation and placed fifth in Persuasive Speaking. Wayne Rysavy (sophomore, Ramstein, Germany) won Informative Speaking and finished fourth in Dramatic Interpretation. Rysavy and Davidson teamed to finish ninth in Parliamentary Debate.   Other multiple award winners for Boise State were Jared Cooke (junior, Idaho Falls) who was third in Impromptu Speaking, fourth in Informative Speaking and sixth in Poetry Interpretation; Tracy Glass (junior, Meridian) who placed third in Informative Speaking and fifth in novice Persuasive Speaking; and Kristin Davidson (junior, Winnipeg, Manitoba) who finished fourth in Persuasive Speaking, fifth in Rhetorical Analysis and ninth in Parliamentary Debate.    The Talkin’ Broncos will travel to invitational tournaments at the University of Houston and Whitman College in February as they prepare for the National Tournament at Webster University in St. Louis, Mo., in March.   -30-   Contact: Marty Most, Department of Communication, (208) 426-1920, mmost@boisestate.edu                                                               Media Contact: Kathleen Craven, University Relations, (208) 426-3275, kcraven@boisestate.edu Online at: http://news.boisestate.edu