MJC speech teammates qualify for national event

Two members of the Modesto Junior College speech and debate team have qualified for a prestigious national competition.

Competitors James Baugh and Jon Sahlman won first and second place, respectively, in open persuasive speaking at the University of Pacific’s Paul Winters Invitational, qualifying them to compete in the National Individual Events Tournament.

The MJC team won the first-place sweepstakes award for accumulating the most overall points in the two-year division at the event, held Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.

“This is an incredibly impressive feat for two students who are only in their second year of competition,” said Ryan Guy, MJC’s director of intercollegiate forensics. “When I coached at the university level, it was rare for a single student to qualify at large in the fall, let alone two. The fact that they both achieved their final qualification legs at such an elite tournament is a testimony to their talent and hard work.”

The National Individual Events Tournament will be held next spring in Portland, Ore. This will be the first time in 10 years that MJC has sent speakers to this tournament, and only the eighth time since the team was founded in the early 1920s.

The UOP tournament also marked key wins for the rest of the MJC squad. Ron Thompson, Caterina Grossi, Michael Rourick, Megan Chatelain, Baugh and Sahlman took home individual awards in a range of events including impromptu, extemporaneous and persuasive speaking.

The partnership of Sahlman and Rourick took home octo-finalist awards in open parliamentary debate. The partnership of Chatelain and Casey Shoblom placed second in novice parliamentary debate.

The team will be traveling to their final tournament of the semester in Berkeley on Dec. 7.

This story was originally published November 9, 2014 at 8:50 PM with the headline "MJC speech teammates qualify for national event."