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November 1, 2007
Debaters Rated No. 1 in Nation
Texas Tech seniors Kristen Owen and Anthony Putnicki earned distinction by winning their first three tournaments of the year.
Written by John Davis
Senior Texas Tech debaters Kristen Owen of Houston and Anthony Putnicki of El Paso are the top team in the country, according to the 2007-2008 rankings released by the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE).
Owen and Putnicki were ranked first out of 401 varsity parliamentary debate teams that have competed nationally thus far this academic year. The NPTE rankings reward the top 56 teams in the nation with qualification to their national tournament.
"I am incredibly proud of Kristen and Anthony, not necessarily because of the ranking, but because of what that ranking signifies,” said head coach Joe Gantt. “They have put an immense amount of time and effort into research and practice and have given up many of their weekends in order to pursue excellence in this activity. This ranking is a nice reward for that hard work.”
Owen and Putnicki earned this distinction by winning their first three tournaments of the year, held at the University of Wyoming, William Jewell College and Lewis & Clark College. Each tournament had a regionally and institutionally diverse field of a minimum of forty-five varsity teams.
Owen and Putnicki compiled a 31-2 record during those tournaments, including a perfect 14-0 record in single elimination debates. They have defeated top teams from the University of Oregon, University of Washington, University of Wyoming, the Colorado College and Creighton, among many others.
The Texas Tech speech and debate team, housed in the Department of Communication Studies, travels this weekend to Colorado Springs, Colo., for the James A. Johnson Invitational held at the Colorado College. For more information on the ranking, visit npte.debateaddict.com.
Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 806-742-2136. Photo by Artie Limmer.