The sought-after Candy Corn Award is given to a college speech competitor who experiences the most embarrassing moment at the annual Halloween-themed tournament during the last weekend of October. Concordia speech team member and junior Cate Bruns received this award at the Halloween tournament in Crete, Nebraska this past weekend, where the team received third place.
Bruns was among a group of people offered a five dollar bet from fellow teammate senior Joe Anderson to take a bite from a pumpkin decorating the hospitality table.
Bruns explained she bolted for the table, knocking over her water bottle and purse on the way.
“It didn’t sound like a bad bet to me,” Bruns said. “And five dollars seemed worth it … I thought other people were going to take him up on it, but nobody else moved.”
Anderson did not expect someone to immediately take the bet.
“I was surprised, but impressed, because she took a bite out of a decorative pumpkin … without even thinking,” Anderson said.
Interestingly, the tournament director was part of the group that was offered the bet and witnessed the entire scenario. Bruns did not realize this until after she had taken a bite out of the pumpkin, which the tournament director had bought to complement the Halloween theme of the tournament.
“(I thought), you own this pumpkin, and I just bit into it,” Bruns said.
Bruns was not the only individual who received a special award at the tournament.
Junior George Kueppers received second place in individual sweepstakes because he received the second highest amount of points from all individual categories combined.
In addition to receiving third place, the team also received three qualifications for the national tournament in April that will be held at Arizona State University. The qualifications included Kueppers in after-dinner speaking, which is a humorous speech, and informative speaking; and Kueppers and junior Krysta Hovendon in duo interpretation.
The Concordia debate team also attended a Halloween-themed tournament in Emporia, Kansas (during the weekend of Oct. 18-20) – certain awards were given in the form of buckets of Halloween candy, rather than trophies.
In addition to the team of senior Emily Bosch and junior Tyler Snelling winning the tournament, they both received individual recognition for their debating. Bosch was named the top speaker and Snelling was named the fourth speaker.
JV members Nathan Clements and Austin Thoma placed second overall in their division. Thoma was also named the top speaker in the division.
The Cobber forensics team will be hosting a showcase of their speech competitors’ events on Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. in the Maize.
This press release was submitted by Concordia Forensics.
