The Truman Forensics Union is well into its nationals season. This past week, the team competed virtually at the Asynchronous Speech Championship, which gathers competitors from coast-to-coast without respect to institutional size or league affiliation. This online tournament has individual events where competitors submit recordings of their speeches for competition. Truman had 13 submissions break into elimination rounds. The team finished with an impressive 8th place in the nation in team sweepstakes, beating out nationally prominent schools such as Harvard, Vassar, and Howard, as well as strong state schools such as Rutgers, the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and several branches of the Cal-State system.
Making it to the national final round of their respective events, first-year Political Science & International Relations and Environmental Science double major, Annie Nguyen, placed 5th and received the top novice award in Communication Analysis. Fourth-year Criminal Justice and Social Issue Advocacy double major Alex Peterson was 3rd in Impromptu Speaking. Multiple students made it to the semifinal round (top 12) of competition, including the Duo Interpretation team of fourth-year Chemistry major Briggs Maynor and fourth-year Political Science major Jessie Philips. Jack Unsell, a first-year Political Science and Environmental Science double major, was a semifinalist in both Extemporaneous and Impromptu Speaking. Peterson also reached the semifinals of Persuasive Speaking.
Nguyen was also a quarterfinalist (top 24) in Informative and Persuasive speaking. She was joined in the Persuasive quarterfinal by second-year Biology major Lauren Weiss. In Extemporaneous Speaking, second-year History major Jack Schroeder and second-year Economics and Political Science major Sawyer Partney were quarterfinalists. Maynor and Peterson were quarterfinalists in Duo Interpretation, with Maynor also bringing home a quarterfinalist placement in Poetry Interpretation.
Though not at a national championship, the team’s debaters competed this past weekend at the I-70 Cup, a synchronous online tournament. Second-year math major Ryan Franklin was a semifinalist, outperforming debaters from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, UNLV, Purdue, and Florida State, among others. Franklin was also ranked 7th speaker in the tournament. First-year Political Science and International Relations major Ammishav McHugh was 8th place speaker, while first-year Business Administration major Emmett Beeson was 12th.
Director of Forensics, Dr. Ben Davis, says, “This team continues to excel in this activity. It’s such an honor to watch them near the finish line for this season so strong.” Truman Forensics looks towards its final competition for this season, the National Forensics Association Tournament, April 16th – 20th in Nashville, Tennessee.