Members of the Mustang Speech and Debate Team may see plenty of team captain Tanner Petersen next year, but when they do, there is an excellent chance that she will be debating for the competition. Even so, the Ferron, Utah native and current Farson resident will continue to represent the unprecedented level of excellence attained by the Western forensics program during her two years here.
“I’m not glad that it’s over, but I’m glad that I have a minute to breathe,” Petersen said recently. “I am kind of sad that I will be done competing here.”
“I have been teaching for over 14 years and coaching for six. I can say, without a doubt, that Tanner is one in a million,” said Mustang Head Coach Kristy McManus. “She is one of the strongest, most patient, dedicated, and compassionate people I have worked with. She is a true leader and advocate. You see this both in competition and out. Her personality and experience are appreciated both in the education/communication fields as well as in her personal communities. We will miss her terribly, but we are quite excited to see her continue on an amazing life path. I am forever grateful for her contributions to this team. She has helped create a strong foundation for WWCC Forensics!
“I am even more grateful to have known Tanner as a person,” the coach added.
The team Petersen leaves behind is poised to continue its ascent up the national forensics rankings. She is the Mustangs’ only sophomore.
“Our goal is to continue at this competitive level,” McManus said. “This is what happens when you have a group of dedicated, well-researched, and focused students. I am quite privileged to work with students of this caliber. It is exciting to see so many team members and recruits recognize that we are here to help them achieve their academic and competitive goals while attending and competing for Western.”
At Phi Rho Pi, the national speech and debate tournament for two-year colleges held last month in Costa Mesa, Calif., Petersen and her debate partner, Suzie Schmid, of Rock Springs, capped a terrific season by taking Gold in NPDA (National Parliamentary Debate Association) competition. Petersen also took Gold, and Schmid took Bronze, in IPDA (International Public Debate Association) competition, which involves a one-on-one debate format.
In Individual Events (IEs), Schmid earned Gold in Extemporaneous Speaking and Bronze in IPDA Debate and Impromptu Speaking. Petersen earned a Silver in Impromptu Speaking. Schmid and Petersen finished third and fourth, respectively, in total points earned for their team, out of more than 500 competitors.
Petersen also received the Region III Fellowship Award, which is voted on by coaches and competitors and awarded to the student who best exemplifies the attitudes and attributes of college forensics. Region III includes schools from Arizona, Colorado, El Paso, southern Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.
“That was really cool,” Petersen said. “I think that was the one I’m most proud of.”
Petersen and Schmid also made Western history in March when they advanced into the third elimination round at the National Tournament of Parliamentary Excellence (NPTE), an invitation-only tournament reserved for the top 50 debate teams, or “partnerships,” in the country. At El Camino College in Torrance, Calif., Petersen and Schmid confidently debated duos from prestigious four-year schools like Berkeley, the University of Utah and Texas Tech, employing a novel debate strategy, or position, in which they argued for the existence of an institutionalized bias against community colleges in the world of college debate.
“We wrote a community college position about community colleges (being) systematically discluded from the discussion,” Petersen explained. “Often, when you have teams like Berkeley or the University of Utah, they will place above us just because people know their names and know the school and kind of expect them to win. So we wrote a position on that and it was super, super successful.”
It was successful enough to propel the Western duo further into the NPTE than any Wyoming community college team had gone before. Schmid and Petersen were the first squad to break into elimination, or “out rounds,” at NPTE, and they were among the first all-female community-college teams in the Western States to accomplish the feat. They finished at NPTE ranked 19th in the nation, and Schmid and Petersen ranked 18th and 16th in the nation, respectively, as speakers.
As often happens in debate, the Western team’s strategy provoked other teams to craft opposition arguments in hopes of taking them down. But it also provoked self-examination amongst coaches and judges at the event.
“We had someone run a position against us because they were from a community college, and they said that we were only going to stigmatize community colleges,” Petersen recalled. “Afterwards, there was a panel of three judges, and one judge voted against us and two judges voted for us, so we ended up moving on. One of the judges (said), ‘The fact that I am giving this reason for decision to your opponents and not to you proves your position. I know their names, I know what school they’re from, I know a lot about them. But I don’t even know your names, and that makes me so mad at myself.’ We had a lot of people recognize our position, and that was really fun.”
McManus said that Western’s speech and debate students have earned accolades from coaches and judges all year long.
“I am so proud of comments from adjudicators and coaches about our program,” she said. “Our students provide depth of analysis and have a strong foundation in structure and strategy. Adjudicators and coaches ask to judge our teams.”
All in all, it’s been a busy semester for Petersen, who also managed to spend three weeks in Cheyenne working as a legislative intern during the Wyoming Legislature’s recent session. Petersen drew heavily on the speedy research skills she has developed as a debater, as many of her assignments from lawmakers involved researching information related to various bills, often on short notice. Petersen was joined at the Legislature by fellow Western student Melia Dayley, and the pair received the Outstanding Legislative Interns Award for the session.
Now that her competition schedule and assorted academic responsibilities have concluded, Petersen is able to relax and reflect on her busy and successful two years as a Western student and Mustang debater. The communication major, who is seriously considering attending the University of Utah, said it will feel odd to take the podium next year against the Mustangs and not as their team leader.
“The University of Utah has a team, so if I go there I’ll keep competing for them, so that will be neat,” she said. “I’ll compete against Western next year, if that’s the case, so that won’t necessarily be as fun. I’ll see my old debate partner in round with someone else, so I don’t know. It will be interesting.”
Petersen caught the eye of U. of U’s coaches last year, when she and then-debate partner Rachel Tolhurst made good use of the advice provided by one of their coaches after an uneven first round in Tanner’s very first debate tournament.
“We just kept adapting, and in our semifinal round he judged us again, and he said that we had come so far, you couldn’t even tell we were the same debaters from the first round of the tournament to the semifinals,” she recalled. “He gave me an offer not long after that. Then they started working with me and just kind of showed interest. I feel like I’m a part of their team. I know the coaches, I know the teammates.”
Petersen said the Utes also allow their competitors to participate in debate and IEs, whereas many four-year schools do not.
As for the Mustangs, they head into next season with the largest and most seasoned group of sophomore competitors in the program’s history. And all of them are from Sweetwater County.
Their potential was on full display at the Western States Communication Conference Tournament in February, when both Petersen and Schmid, and Dakota Washam and Kaitlyn Tyler, both of Rock Springs, advanced into the Octa-Finals rounds for parliamentary debate. Tyler took 6th-place and Washam took 5th-place Speakers’ Awards.
In IEs, Schmid took 6th place for Extemporaneous Speaking, while Steffany Stephenson took 5th place in Poetry and in Program Oral Interpretation. Stephenson also presented and served on a conference panel, where she spoke about the importance of presenting argumentation through literature.
McManus said that such strong showings in debate and IE formats indicate the depth and breadth of the Mustangs’ returning talent.
“We hope to have a strong community college representation in not only debate, but also in all 11 Individual Events,” McManus said. “I am so proud of our students. They are consistently coachable and ready to make the changes necessary to be nationally competitive. It takes time, dedication, and a commitment to quality research to stay at this level. These students never cease to amaze me with their commitment and drive.”
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