It’s business as usual for the Missouri Southern Speech and Debate Squad.

On Dec. 4-8, the Southern Speech and Debate Squad competed in the Ohio State University and Otterbein College speech competition and placed second in the overall sweepstakes category.

Kelly Larson, assistant professor of communications and director of forensics, said it was a good showing by Southern in a big tournament.

OHS hosts one of the five largest speech and debate tournaments in the country, and Southern is usually the smallest school that goes to tournament Larson said.

Jason Edgar, senior speech communication major, said he did well in the December competition.

Edgar competed in the duo interpretation and finished in fifth place.

“The debate team members have great expectations that they will win when they go to a tournament,” Larson said.

Although the team has had plenty of success recently, it also has things to work on.

“The weakness of the squad is that we have so many good people and not all of them can move on to the next round, but this is also one of our strengths because we have a lot of good debaters,” Edgar said.

Larson said teaching the newcomers how to socially adapt to each other, helping them learn the social rules of being a college debater and getting the new members to adapt to the judging pool will be crucial to the team’s future success.

“The top four or five squad members model the correct behavior for the newcomers,” Larson said.

Currently, Southern ranks third in the country.

This year is geared toward winning the title at the National Forensics Association tournament in Providence, R.I.

“In preparation for competitions and being ranked third in the country, it is necessary the team cuts evidence and researches the competing schools,” Edgar said.

On Feb. 14-15, the squad has a tournament in Boston, which it was victorious in last year.

Before heading to Boston, the squad will go to Webster University in St. Louis Jan. 31 for another tournament.

“We are taking nothing but the best,” Edgar said.