WKU News

From top to bottom, left to right: Anthony Survance (graduate assistant), Tess Welch, Chad Meadows (Director of Debate), Madelynn Einhorn, Avery Lenihan, Tanya Prabhakar, Miles Morton, Andre Swai, Antonina Clementi, Hannah Jones, Iman Brula.

The Western Kentucky University Forensics Team captured first place in Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the 24th annual Gorlok Gala hosted virtually by Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, Jan. 28-30.  

Senior Madelynn Einhorn of Oakwood, Ohio, defeated the top competitor from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the final round on a contested 3-2 decision. By winning the tournament championship, Einhorn won the Gorlok for the third consecutive year, a feat never accomplished in the tournament’s history.

WKU also was awarded the top three speaker awards at the competition, with junior Andre Swai of Springfield, Missouri, taking home the tournament’s top speaker award.

Webster University’s tournament is a key competition for the WKU Debate program as it is generally the largest and most difficult event of the invitational season in Lincoln-Douglas debate. 

“Our team puts almost as much into the Gorlok as the national tournament in April,” Director of Debate Chad Meadows said. “We use it as a barometer to test where we stack up against the best competition, so to emerge with a tournament championship really boosted the students’ confidence.”

The WKU Forensics Team also won the Gorlok’s “Traveling Trophy.” This rewards teams for the points they accumulate each year of competition at the Gorlok. When a team wins the award, the next year their total returns to zero. WKU has won the “Traveling Trophy” a record four times. 

The team also competed at a swing tournament hosted by the University of North Carolina-Charlotte called The Charlotte Motor Speechway/SNAFU #4.

The team will compete this weekend at a virtual tournament hosted the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Results from the “Gorlok” are as follows:

• Lincoln-Douglas Debate Speaker: Andre Swai of Springfield, Missouri, 1st; Madelynn Einhorn of Oakwood, Ohio, 2nd; Tess Welch of Houston, Texas, 3rd.
• Lincoln-Douglas Debate:  Madelynn Einhorn, Champion; Tess Welch, Top 8, Andre Swai, Top 8.
• Junior Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate: Hannah Jones of Bowling Green, Kentucky, Top 4.

Results from the Charlotte Motor Speechway are as follows:

• After Dinner Speaking: Danielle Williams of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, 2nd; Dakota Perry of Morehead, Kentucky, 4th.
• Communication Analysis: Jonah Johnson of Burnsville, Minnesota, 3rd.
• Prose Interpretation: Dakota Perry, 7th.

Results from SNAFU #4 are as follows:

• After Dinner Speaking: Dakota Perry, 6th.
• Communication Analysis: Jonah Johnson, 4th.
• Prose Interpretation: Dakota Perry, 4th.

More: Check out the WKU Forensics Facebook page or follow @wkuforensics  and @DebateWku on Twitter.

Contact: Ganer Newman, (270) 745-6340.

-- WKU –

Western Kentucky University prides itself on positioning its students, faculty and staff for long term success. As a student-centered, applied research university, WKU helps students expand on classroom learning by integrating education with real-world applications in the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was recently named by Reader’s Digest as one of the nicest towns in America, just an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.