Posted by Mary Wimberley on 2011-09-22

 

Samford University varsity debaters Dan Bagwell and Jacob Lewis returned from their first competition of the season with the highest showing posted by a Samford team in the 13-year history of the Georgia State National Debate Tournament.

The Samford duo defeated a top 32-ranked team from Towson University on a 3-0 decision in the first elimination round to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where they lost 2-1  to a Gonzaga University team they had defeated in preliminary rounds.

Bagwell and Lewis had claimed 6 out of 7 wins in preliminary rounds to go into elimination rounds ranked fifth of the 132 teams at the tournament, held Sept. 17-19 in Atlanta, Ga.

Bagwell was named 6th best speaker among 264 individual speakers at the tournament.  This is the first time a Samford debater has been ranked among the top 10 speakers at this season-opening tournament, according to debate coach Abi Williams.

Bagwell is a senior journalism/mass communication major from Blakely, Ga. Lewis is a senior history major from Monticello, Fla.

 

 
Located in the Homewood suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,324 students from 44 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford is widely recognized as having one of the most beautiful campuses in America, featuring rolling hills, meticulously maintained grounds and Georgian-Colonial architecture. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks with the second-highest score in the nation for its 98% Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.