The Truman Forensics Team has officially started their 2024-2025 competition season. The team was successful at a few early-season tournaments. As it stands currently, the team has qualified 8 students and 27 slots for nationals across speech and debate combined!
The Truman Forensics Team is housed within the newly merged Department of Communication and Theatre Arts, giving students the opportunity to compete in both speech and debate activities across the state of Missouri and throughout the United States. If you are interested in joining the team or learning more about competitive public speaking or debate, please contact Director of the team, Dr. Ben Davis, at bdavis@truman.edu, or Assistant Director, Professor Scott Koslow, at skoslow@truman.edu.
Check out their recent results below!
OATS #1
Initially, the speech team earned 2nd Place at the first online asynchronous tournament series (OATS) competition, Sept. 30-Oct. 4, ranking above many well-known programs like George Mason University and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Multiple students earned individual awards and recognition:
- Briggs Maynor (’26) was 3rd place in Poetry, 4th place in Drama, and 6th place in Prose. Briggs received enough points to earn 4th place in Individual Sweepstakes.
- Alex Peterson (’26) received 4th place in Impromptu.
- Bryna Adamson (’27) was 5th in Persuasion.
- Mikayla Hammer (’28) was 6th and Top Novice in Persuasion and a Semifinalist (top 12) in Impromptu.
- Emery McEvoy (’28) earned 3rd and Top Novice in Communication Analysis and Top Novice in After-Dinner Speaking.
Back to the Nest at Illinois State
On Oct.5-6, speech team members traveled to Illinois State University in Bloomington, IL and competed in-person at the annual “Back to the Nest” tournament. On the first day of the competition, the team placed 3rd overall above teams from Ball State University and the University of Illinois Chicago. Many students received recognition:
- Briggs Maynor earned 4th in Poetry, 5th inDrama, and 6th in Communication Analysis.
- Alex Peterson received 3rd in Informative and 4th in After-Dinner Speaking.
- Ashton Mullen (’26) earned 2nd in Novice Extemp and 3rd in Novice Impromptu.
- Bryna Adamson was 6th in Persuasion.
- Mikayla Hammer earned 1st in Novice Extemp, 4th in Novice Impromptu, and 5th and Top Novice in Persuasion.
- Emery McEvoy was 2nd in Novice Impromptu, 3rd and Top Novice in After-Dinner Speaking, and 5th and Top Novice in Communication Analysis.
- Jasmin Elwood (’28) was 4th in Novice Extemp.
On day 2 of the ISU tournament…
- Briggs Maynor earned 5th in Communication Analysis, 5thin Drama, and 6th in Poetry.
- Alex Peterson was 2nd in Informative, 4th in Impromptu, and 6th in After-Dinner Speaking.
- Ashton Mullen earned Top Novice in both Extemp and Impromptu.
- Mikayla Hammer was Top Novice in Persuasion.
- Emery McEvoy was Top Novice in both After-Dinner Speaking and Communication Analysis.
Missouri Mule/Dale Carnegie Swing
The full team then travelled to the University of Central Missouri on Oct. 4-6 for the Missouri Mule/Dale Carnegie Swing tournament. Overall, the team placed 2nd at the Mule part of the competition, ranking above programs from Southwest Baptist University and Texas State. At the Dale Carnegie portion, the team placed 2nd in Debate Sweepstakes, 2nd in Speech Sweepstakes, and 2nd Overall. Across the entire weekend and both parts of the tournament, the team earned 2nd Place.
In After-Dinner Speaking…
Emery McEvoy placed 2nd at the Mule at 1st at the Carnegie.
In Communication Analysis…
Emery McEvoy placed 2nd at both the Mule and the Carnegie.
In Extemporaneous Speaking…
Mikayla Hammer earned 1st Place and Ashton Mullen received 5th at the Mule.
In Impromptu Speaking…
Mikayla Hammer was 1st and Emery McEvoy was 6th at the Mule. At the Carnegie, Emery was 5th and Cooper Spacil (’28) placed 7th.
In Informative Speaking…
Rashed Sohan (’26) earned 5th Place at both the Mule and the Carnegie.
In Persuasive Speaking…
Mikayla Hamer earned 1st Place, Ashton Mullen received 2nd, and Sawyer Partney (’28) was 6th at the Mule. Ashton then earned 3rd Place at the Carnegie.
In Program Oral Interpretation…
Lauren Weiss (’28) placed 5th at the Carnegie portion of the tournament.
In Prose…
Jasmin Elwood received 2nd at the Mule. At the Carnegie, Jasmin placed 4th and Lauren Weiss placed 2nd.
In Novice IPDA at the Mule…
Adli Jacobs (’27) made it to the Semifinal round (TOP 4) and was undefeated coming out of preliminary rounds (6-0), Ashton Mullen was a Quarterfinalist (TOP 8) with a 4-2 prelim record, and Sawyer Partney was an Octafinalist (TOP 16) with a 5-1 record. Ashton was awarded 4th Place Speaker and Adli was 7th Speaker.
In Junior Varsity IPDA…
Ben Croat (’27) and Cooper Spacil made it to the Octafinal round (TOP 16). Cooper was also recognized as the 15th Speaker.
In Varsity IPDA…
Payten Luaders (’27) made it to the Quarterfinal round (TOP 8) and was 3rd Place Speaker. Aiden Breesawitz (’26) earned 9th Place Speaker.
In Novice Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate…
Adli Jacobs was a Semifinalist (TOP 4) and placed as 3rd Speaker.
In Junior Varsity LD…
At the Mule, Ryan Franklin (’28) was 6th Place Speaker.
At the Carnegie portion, Ben Croat was 1st Place Speaker, Mikayla Hammer was 5th Speaker, and Ryan Franklin was 6th Speaker.
As one of the top point earners at the tournament who competed in both speech and debate, Ashton Mullen received 5th Place in “The Jack” category.
OATS #2
Most recently, the speech team competed against 49 schools at the second OATS (Online Asynchronous Tournament Series) tournament of the season. Truman Forensics came out on top at 1st Place. Truman earned a higher amount of points than many programs often ranked among the top ten teams in the nation, such as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wayne State University.
The following students earned individual recognition at the OATS tournament:
Alex Peterson was Tournament Champion and 1st Place in Impromptu Speaking, in addition to earning 2nd Place in After-Dinner Speaking and Prose. Earning the most points individually out of all 180 students competing at the tournament, Alex also received 1st Place in Individual Sweepstakes.
Briggs Maynor placed 2nd in Communication Analysis.
Ben Grandstaff (’27) earned 5th Place in Extemporaneous Speaking.
Mikayla Hammer placed 2nd in Extemporaneous Speaking and 5th in Impromptu Speaking.
Jack Schroeder (’28) earned 6th Place in Extemporaneous Speaking.
Emery McEvoy was 4th overall and the Top Novice competitor in both Impromptu Speaking and Communication Analysis, in addition to winning Tournament Champion and 1st Place in After-Dinner Speaking (ADS). In fact, Emery received the highest ranks above other competitors in his preliminary rounds for ADS and the judging panel for the ADS final round unanimously voted Emery top of the round. Emery conquered the tournament with an impressive 4th Place finish in Individual Sweepstakes.
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The team travels to approximately twenty tournaments throughout the entire competition season, which starts in October and ends with a week-long national tournament April.
Continue to check back here with news on the team’s progress throughout the year. You can also check out the team’s Instagram @Trumanforensicunion or at Truman Forensics on Facebook.