The Lower Columbia College Fighting Smelt Speech & Debate Team finished the Northwest Forensics Conference (NFC) season in second place and were awarded the NFC Division III Silver Sweepstakes award last weekend. This award means that LCC had the second best season of all community colleges in the conference, which represents Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Alaska. The Fighting Smelt finished second behind only the College of Western Idaho (Nampa, ID).

Sweepstakes awards were presented to schools at the conclusion of the Viking Invitational Tournament, hosted by Western Washington University, January 25-27. In this tournament, the Fighting Smelt took first place in 2-year college sweepstakes. This result was a team effort, with several individual competitors earning sweepstakes points.