Boise State Speech & Debate Team Wins 12th Consecutive Regional Championship

The Boise State speech & debate team, the Talkin' Broncos, are becoming as legendary as the Boise State football team.


The Talkin' Broncos return home from Spokane, Washington with their 12th consecutive title in the Great Falls Regional Championship.  


“We’re working at an exhausting pace right now with finishing up the regular season and moving into national championships,” said Manda Hicks, program director. “The conventions change from regional competition to national competition, so the team needed to use this tournament to prepare for nationals, but still uphold the expectations of northwest speech and debate – they managed beautifully. I’m excited to see how they perform at our next tournament in the Midwest.”

Tanya Medukha and Mike Fitzgerald won the tournament championship in Parliamentary debate while juniors Jon Agnew and Taylor Bruun were second.  Josh Watkins won the championship in public debate with Kat Miller and Robin Jensen both reaching the quarterfinals.

Freshman Drew Lindgren reached the final in novice public debate and was honored with a Top Five speaker award.  Sophomore Cassandra Sullivan and junior Monica Cutler also won speaking awards and were recognized among the Top 10 public debaters at the tournament.

Freshman KayCee and sophomore Dalton Hellman teamed to take second place in world's debate with freshman Svlvia Fortner and sophomore Devon Downey finishing third.  Babb, Hellman and Downey all won speaking awards and were recognized among the top five world's debaters in Spokane.

Watkins led Boise State in scoring with first-place finishes in after-dinner speaking, communication analysis and informative speaking, a second-place finish in persuasive speaking and a third in program oral interpretation.  Jensen finished first in persuasive speaking, Sullivan won in impromptu speaking and senior Howie Long took first in novice after-dinner speaking.

Sabonn Dammarell finished second in prose-interpretation, third in after-dinner speaking and reached the finals in impromptu speaking.  Sullivan was second in communication analysis and third in extemporaneous speaking while Bruin was second in the latter category.  Downey placed second in novice extemporaneous speaking and was a finalist in novice impromptu speaking, Norell Conroy finished third in communication analysis and was a finalist in both extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking and Cutler finished third in interpretation of poetry and was a finalist in prose.

Skyler Bagley finished third in novice interpretation of prose, Fitzgerald third in informative speaking, Hellman reached the finals in both extemporaneous speaking and informative speaking, sophomore Lauren Bramwell was a finalist in both prose and program oral interpretation and Babb reached the finals in poetry interpretation and persuasive speaking.  Medukha reached the finals in both program oral interpretation and interpretation of poetry, Steve Lee was a finalist in extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking , Miller was a finalist in informative speaking and Long reached the finals in novice extemporaneous speaking. 

From here, it is on to the PKD National Comprehensive Tournament next weekend, March 15-18 in Kansas City, Missouri, where Boise State defends its national championship. 

Congratulations to this great group of Broncos!