The National Debate Championship and Convention has been cancelled, but the good news is that Louisiana Tech’s team performed well in its final competition and finished the season ranked 14th out of 129 schools nationally.

As a novice squad, the team finished fifth nationally, and in the professional division, Tech was also fifth nationally.

In the novice division individually, Skylar Dean was ranked fifth in the nation, and Kendrick Kruskie was tied for 10th out of 465 competitors.

Dean also tied for seventh speaker in the novice division for season-long results out of 86 competitors.

In team debate, Steve Garcia and Katie McKenzie were ninth in the nation out of 142.

The final tournament the team was able to attend was this month at the University of Tyler, Texas tournament. Dean was a finalist and Kara Taylor a quarterfinalist in the novice division, Garcia was both a quarterfinalist in the professional division and second-place speaker in team debate, and McKenzie was both a quarterfinalist in the varsity division and third-place speaker in team debate.

The team is coached by Megan Smith. For more information on Tech Debate, contact her in the School of Communication, megan@latech.edu.