The speech and debate team traveled to Houston on Sept. 10 for the University of Houston and Louisiana State University “Pussycat Swing,” and took first place in overall debate sweepstakes.

The team competed against Rice University, LSU, Texas State University, Texas A&M University, William Carey University and other large schools.

Dena Counts, director of forensics and instructor of communication, coaches the ACU team every year.

“We practice 4:30 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday night and the students are supposed to work six  hours outside of practice every Week,” Counts said.

The team has 12 members, eight of whom went on the trip. The team of Jeff Craig, junior journalism major from Granbury, and Jared Perkins, junior environmental science and political science major from Saginaw, won first place in the open division of Parliamentary Debate, beating Rice University in the final round.

Sarah Ratliff, sophomore English major from Lake Kiowa; Scott Adrian, senior political science major from Glendale, Calif.; Brianna Bowman, senior communications major from Marble Falls; and Margaret Moore, junior youth and family ministry and secondary education major from Houston; all won third place in open parliamentary debate.

Moore also won first place for her informative speech. Her topic is Echolocation, which is how bats find their way around. Echolocation is a high pitched sound used in the military and civilian world. One blind person could actually slam-dunk a basketball using Echolocation.

“I did a lot of research online,” Moore said. “Google became my best friend and I wrote my speech over the summer.”

The team of Victoria Knaupp, freshman communications major from Cisco, and Chris Sisk, junior accounting major from San Antonio, won second place in novice parliamentary debate. Sisk was named second-place novice speaker for debate and Knaupp was the third-place speaker.

In parliamentary debate, opposing teams of two students take either an affirmative or negative side of an issue. Each team has 15 to 20 minutes to prepare for the 45-minute debate, Counts said. A different topic is debated every round, and for this tournament students participated in eight rounds. The topics included gay marriage, the war in Afghanistan and the effect of technology on relationships.

The team’s next tournament is hosted by Rice University.