MOORPARK : College Debaters Place 2nd in Contest

The Moorpark College forensics team has won second place in the Phi Rho Pi National Community College Championships, one of the top U.S. competitions for community college speech students.

The 14-member team was among those representing 71 colleges in last week’s contest in Kansas City, Mo.

Moorpark’s Mike Leach won four gold medals and tied for best speaker in the country. The team won 33 medals--16 gold, two silver and 15 bronze.

The Raiders have done well in the weeklong competition before, finishing first in 1988, said Charlene Arnold, who coached the 1990 team along with speech professors Richard Strong and James Wyman.

Students begin preparing for the contest in September, Arnold said. Several top competitors had to drop out.

“We had very few returning people from last year’s team,” Arnold said. “This team had to learn quick and work hard.”

The first- and third-place teams were also from Southern California. Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa finished first, and El Camino College in Torrance was third.