parliamentary debate tournament. Buckley as a freshman in 2015 became the first freshman and the first African-American to be named top speaker at the NPDA tournament. Buckley outranked 320 other debaters representing top programs such as the University of California, Berkeley, Wheaton, Rice and Whitman to receive the James "Al" Johnson Top Speaker Award. That same year, Lindsey Hancock and Hunter Pilkinton competed at the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE) at William Jewell College in Missouri. The duo from Mercer was the first team from the university and the state of Georgia to attend the NPTE, the most prestigious parliamentary debate tournament in the nation. Also in 2015, the Hancock-Pilkinton duo became the first Mercer team to win the Georgia Parliamentary Debate Association State Championships, with Hancock being the first woman to win the state title.
== Athletics ==
Mercer fields eighteen (18) teams, known as the Bears, on the NCAA Division I level (FCS, formerly I-AA, for football); …
