Forensics Team Opens Season with Wins In the first weekend of competition for the semester, members of the Truman Forensics Union opened their season with multiple wins on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., at the annual Boilermaker Special Forensics Tournament. |
Truman Forensics Still Going Strong In the third competition of the season, members of the Truman Forensics Union traveled to the campus of Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, taking second place in debate sweepstakes and 4 th in overall team sweepstakes. The team went head to head with numerous nationally competitive teams, including last year's national champions in both individual events and debate, Western Kentucky University. In open parliamentary debate, a two-on-two style of off-the-cuff debating, Sophomores Christian Johns (Carthage, MO) and Elizabeth Hatting (Omaha, NE) were the champions after winning their final round against competitors from Rice University. Juniors Sarah Backhaus (Liberty, MO) and Dylan Clark (St. Louis, MO) advanced to the quarterfinal elimination round. Johns won a 2 nd place speaking award, Backhaus received 4 th , Hatting won 6 th , and Clark received 10 th . Speaking awards are based on the quality of public speaking that a debater displays, not necessarily how many rounds of debate they win. In Lincoln-Douglas debate, a one-on-one policy style of debating, Dylan Clark advanced to the quarterfinal round of open competition, while Christian Johns advanced to octofinals. Sarah Backhaus, while not advancing, did receive an 8 th place speaking award in this event. Not only did the varsity debaters do quite well, Truman was also able to debut new debate talent. In Novice Lincoln-Douglas, freshman Alex Clippinger (Kansas City, MO) advanced to the final round, taking second place. Freshman Susan Taylor (Liberty, MO) made it into semi-finals, while freshman Katie Koenig (St. Louis, MO) advanced to quarterfinals. Clippinger also took a second place speaking award and Koenig a 5 th place speaking award. In individual events, there were two tournaments taking place on the same weekend. In the first tournament, Freshman Jessica Petrie (Bellville, IL) placed 3rd in Impromptu Speaking and 3rd in Extemporaneous Speaking. Sophomore Andrew Grojean (Blue Springs, MO) placed 5th in both After Dinner Speaking and Prose Interpretation. Freshman Samantha Jones took 6 th in Prose Interpretation, earning her another qualification for the National Championship Tournament at the end of the season. This year, that national championship will take place in Athens, Ohio, and will only include competitors that have proven themselves by advancing to finals at a large tournament. Students have to qualify each event that they have in order to participate in that event at Nationals. The second individual events tournament saw Freshman Kyle LaVelle (Overland, MO) receive 6 th in Impromptu Speaking – earning him a qualification for nationals. Jessica Petrie topped her Extemporaneous award from the day prior, receiving 2 nd place. This brings the team's total qualification for nationals up to 13 – with well over half the competitive season still remaining. Assistant Director, Russ Luce, commented, “ This tournament was a success across the board. With competitors in the final round in both Parliamentary and Junior Varsity Lincoln Douglas debate as well as competitors in out rounds in both forms of debate and individual events, the team exceeded our expectations for this competitive tournament. As this was our first time traveling as a full squad this semester, I think we showed the rest of the community the powerful bite that the Truman State University Bulldogs Forensics team carries.” November will find the individual events competitors facing one of their toughest challenges of the season, the Bradley University tournament. The team travels to Peoria, Illinois the first weekend in November. “Nationals is tough because it is so large and has a certain quality of competition. However, the Bradley tournament is in some ways more competitive because the quality of competition is more concentrated. You have fewer rounds, up against the best of the best in the Nation, to prove yourself. We still have such a young individual events squad—all freshman and sophomores—and Bradley will certainly be an amazing learning experience for them…and I am confident that we will have a few break through performances there as well,” stated Director Kristi Scholten. The same weekend that the Individual Events team travels to Bradley, the Junior Varsity debaters will be traveling to Central Missouri University to compete in Lincoln-Douglas, while the Varsity LD squad has been asked to participate in the Westminster Debate Society's commemoration of Winston Churchill in Fulton, MO at the Winston Churchill Museum. Anyone interested in competing in forensics should contact Dr. Kristi Scholten, DOF at kscholten@truman.edu . |
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Truman Forensics Reaches New Heights of Success at “The Hilltop” Members of the Truman Forensics Union continued a trend of success at the second competition of the season hosted by the Hilltoppers at Western Kentucky University and the Ohio University Bobcats. The weekend featured two tournaments in one location—the rolling hills of Bowling Green, Kentucky. During the first half of the swing tournament, sophomore Christian Johns (Carthage, MO) beat out 39 other competitors to reign as tournament champion in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Other highlights from this half of the swing included a third place finish in Poetry Interpretation from freshman Samantha Jones (Wheaton, IL) which qualified her for the national tournament at the end of the season; a new qualification for sophomore Mel Kapitan, who received fourth in Poetry; a fourth place finish in Prose Interpretation and seventh place in Impromptu Speaking from sophomore Andrew Grojean (Blue Springs, MO); a fourth place finish in Extemporaneous Speaking and fifth place in Impromptu for freshman Jessica Petrie (Belleville, IL); and Octofinal finishes in LD by sophomore Elizabeth Hatting (Omaha, NE) and juniors Sarah Backhaus (Liberty, MO) and Dylan Clark (St. Louis, MO). The Truman LD squad beat out students from Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, and more to take a third place debate sweepstakes award. During the second tournament, Truman's Individual event competitors clinched a fourth place sweepstakes trophy. This was due to in part to several good showings in elimination rounds by a very young and promising squad. In Dramatic Duo, sophomores Erin Williamson (Kansas City, MO) and Darius Taylor (Zion, IL) earned another national qualification by placing fourth. Samantha Jones repeated her third place finish in Poetry, while Jessica Petrie repeated her fourth place finish in Extemporaneous. Andrew Grojean rounded out the success of this half of the swing by placing seventh in After Dinner Speaking. Coaches Kristi Scholten, Russ Luce, and Kris Stroup have high hopes for this season. The team's successes at both Western Kentucky University and at the first tournament are a sign of good things to come. “In just two competitions we have already achieved the number of national qualifications that we had half way through the season last year. With such a young squad, if we continue this trend…well, it's just exciting to think about,” stated Kristi Scholten, Director of Forensics. The team has a little time to recoup before they travel to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska October 23-25 where they will be debuting even more, young, new talent. Anyone interested in competing in forensics should contact Dr. Kristi Scholten, DOF at kscholten@truman.edu . |
Truman Forensics Has a Powerful Performance This past weekend the Truman Forensics Team traveled to several locations throughout the region for competition as well as celebratory purposes. Bradley University in Peoria , IL and the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg , MO were hosts to two tournaments while the Winston Churchill Museum in Fulton , MO served as the venue for a series of commemorative debates. The team came away with two individual tournament champions, a team sweepstakes championship, an individual speaking championship and several other awards while competing against several of the best squads from across the nation. The University of Central Missouri held two separate tournaments. Freshman Matt Gilmore ( Blue Springs , MO ) won the novice division while freshman Susan Taylor ( Liberty , MO ) advanced to the semifinal round. All four competitors also won a speaker award. Matt Gilmore took 2 nd place, freshman Katie Koenig ( St. Louis , MO ) took 3 rd , Susan Taylor took 6 th , and freshman Aimee Chau ( Kansas City , MO ) took 7 th place. The second tournament was filled with even more success. Katie Koenig won the novice division after advancing past her teammate, Aimee Chau, in semifinals. Katie also took the 1 st place speaker award. Matt Gilmore took 3 rd place and Aimee Took 6 th . The team won the debate sweepstakes trophy, surpassing defending national champions Western Kentucky as well as several other prominent debate teams such as Missouri Southern and McKendree. All four competitors earned their qualification to the national tournament to be held in April at Ohio University in Athens , OH . Assistant Director Russ Luce commented, “I could not be more proud of the team. They had a great showing against some solid competition. They are all very young in terms of debate experience, so their success this weekend was well beyond our expectations.” Members of the team who compete in individual events, or speech events, traveled to Bradley University . This is one of the largest and most competitive tournaments of the season. There were around 40 schools from all over the nation in attendance – including such powerhouses as Western Kentucky University , and George Mason University . Three freshman, two sophomores, and one junior made the trip to Peoria , Illinois . Sophomore Andrew Grojean ( Blue Springs , MO ), advanced to the semi-finals in Prose Interpretation—the largest event with 100 competitors. Director Kristi Scholten commented: “Tournaments like this, this early in the season can be overwhelming but they serve as a good kick in the pants. You see what's out there and where you need to be to achieve top honors. It is a tremendous learning experience for all who attend. The students are now hungry to beat those people they saw winning and they have set goals to do so by the National Championship Tournament.” Finally, as part of a series of events in commemoration of Winton Churchill and his famous “Iron Curtain” speech, two members of the varsity debate team participated in debates hosted by the Westminster Debate Society. Junior Elizabeth Hatting ( Omaha , NE ) and sophomore Christian Johns ( Carthage , MO ) represented Truman which was one of four universities specially invited for this prestigious event. In addition to the debates, participants were given a tour of the Winston Churchill Museum and Library as well as other special venues related to this historic event. The team next travels to Columbus , OH to attend a swing tournament. The first tournament will be held at The Ohio State University on December 4-5 and the second half will be held at Otterbein College on December 6. This tournament should be a good test for the team as those that do well at this tournament also tend to perform well at the national tournament. Anyone interested in competing in forensics should contact Dr. Kristi Scholten, Director of the program at kscholten@truman.edu . |