The speech and debate team at the University of Arkansas at Monticello brought home nine awards, including second place in the overall sweepstakes competition, at the Hot-N-Spicy Tournament hosted by Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., Oct. 27-29. 

   Brian Rauls of Bearden earned second place in the varsity debate division while Joel Brown of Monticello and Chris Halley of North Little Rock both reached the quarterfinals. Brown also earned a third place speaker award, and Halley earned a fifth place speaker award. 

   In the novice division, Shiann Ryals of Dardanelle made it to the quarterfinals while Kate Kelly of Monticello reached the final 16 and earned a second place speaker award. 

   Also contributing to the winning effort were Justin Banks, Jon Craven of Monticello, Whitney Romans of Crossett and Tim Williamson of Grove Hill, Ala. 

   “This was a team achievement in the truest since,” said Scott Kuttenkuler, the team’s coach and director of forensics. “We were able to win second place by only one point against a team that had several more competitors then we did. One point really illustrates the value of every person doing well and that each victory by the members of the team had to happen or the end result would have been different.” 

   The team’s next tournament is Nov. 10-12 at Louisiana State University at Shreveport in Shreveport, La.