Press Releases

The first week of October was an exciting time for Truman Forensics. While the campus was enjoying Fall Break, the team was busy competing at 4 tournaments. Across OATS #1, PKD Public Forum #1, and the Missouri Mule/Carnegie Swing, the team secured 35 more national qualifications, bringing the total this semester up to 39 for the National Forensic Association (NFA) tournament. The team brought back a total of 107 awards, one of the largest single-week successes the team has had in twenty years. Associate Director of Forensics, Lars Wagener, is thrilled with the team’s hard work and “downright ecstatic to see what the rest of the season holds.” To qualify for the NFA tournament, students must reach a sufficiently-sized elimination round in a regular-season tournament. The tally below documents the impressive showing across these four tournaments.

TOTAL NFA QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE WEEK: 35

TOTAL AFA QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE WEEK: 6

CUMULATIVE NFA QUALIFICATIONS TO DATE (INCLUDING DEBATE): 39

TOTAL AWARDS FOR THE WEEK: 107

Pi Kappa Delta Public Forum Debate Tournament Series #1

• Eric Rotert (1st-year) and Sawyer Partney (2nd-year) – Semifinalists
• Sawyer Partney (2nd-year) – 4^th Speaker
• Payten Luaders (3rd-year) – 7^th Speaker
• Ashton Mullen (3rd-year) – 9^th Speaker

Online Asynchronous Tournament Series #1

• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) and Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 4^th Place in Duo Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 4^th Place and Top Novice in Extemporaneous Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – Semifinalist and Top Novice in Impromptu Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – Top Novice in Individual Sweepstakes
• Emery McEvoy (2nd-Year)  – Semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Ashton Mullen (3rd-Year) – 5^th Place in Informative Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Annie Nguyen (1st-year) – Top Novice in Persuasive Speaking
• Cooper Spacil (2nd-Year) – 7th Place (NFA Qualification)
• Team Sweepstakes – 2^nd Place (Tied with Louisiana State University, Illinois State was 4^th, UT-Austin was 5^th)

University of Central Missouri “Swing” Tournament (2 Parts)

Missouri Mule – Individual Events

• Willow Adamson (1st-year) – 1^st in Poetry Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Willow Adamson (1st-year) – 4^th in After Dinner Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) – 3^rd in Rhetorical Criticism (NFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) – 5^th in Prose Interpretation  (NFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) and Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 1^st in Duo Interpretation (AFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) and Jessie Philips (4th-year) – 2^nd in Duo Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Annie Nguyen (1st-year) – 2^nd in Informative Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Annie Nguyen (1st-year) – 2^nd in Persuasive Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 1^st in Impromptu Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 3^rd in After Dinner Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 3^rd in Informative Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 5^th in Dramatic Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Jessie Philips (4th-year) – 2^nd in Prose Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Jack Schroeder (2nd-Year) – 5^th in Extemporaneous Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Jack Schroeder (2nd-Year) – 6^th in Informative Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Cooper Spacil (2nd-Year) – 2^nd in After Dinner Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Cooper Spacil (2nd-Year) – 2^nd in Broadcast Journalism
• Cooper Spacil (2nd-Year) – Semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 2^nd in Extemporaneous Speaking
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 3^rd in Impromptu Speaking
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 4^th in Rhetorical Criticism
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 5^th in Extemporaneous Speaking
• Lauren Weiss (2nd-Year) – 5^th in After Dinner Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Lauren Weiss (2nd-Year) – Semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking (NFA Qualification)

Missouri Mule – Debate

Varsity International Public Debate Association (IPDA) Division

• • Sawyer Partney (2nd-Year) – Octafinalist

Junior Varsity International Public Debate Association (IPDA) Division

• • Emmett Beeson (1st-year) – Octafinalist
  • Eric Rotert (2nd-Year) – Quarterfinalist
  • Jack Unsell (1st-year) – Semifinalist, 1^st Place Speaker
  • Lauren Weiss (2nd-Year) – Quarterfinalist

Novice International Public Debate Association (IPDA) Division

• • Jack Schroeder (2nd-Year) – Octafinalist

Team International Public Debate (TIPDA) Division

• • Mikayla Hammer (2nd-Year) – 3^rd Speaker

Varsity NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate (NFA-LD) Division

• • Aiden Bresawitz (4th-year) – 2^nd Place Finalist (NFA Qualification)
  • Payten Luaders (3rd-Year) – 4^th Seed (NFA Qualification)
  • Payten Luaders (3rd-Year) – 2^nd Place Speaker

Junior Varsity NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate (NFA-LD) Division

• • Nevaeh Carter (1st-year), Tessa Kremer (1st-year), and Ammi McHugh (1st-year) (NFA Qualification) – Co-Champions
  • Nevaeh Carter (1st-year) – 1^st Speaker
  • Tessa Kremer (1st-year) – 2^nd Speaker
  • Ammi McHugh (1st-year) – 5^th Speaker
  • Sawyer Partney (2nd-Year) – 6^th Speaker

Missouri Mule – Team Awards

Pentathlon

• • Briggs Maynor (4th-year) – 3^rd Place
  • Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 2^nd Place
  • Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 5^th Place

“The Jack Award” (for top performers who do both speech and debate)

• • Jack Unsell  (1st-year) – 2^nd Place

Team Sweepstakes

• • Debate – 1^st Place
  • Individual Events – 2^nd Place
  • Overall – 1^st Place
  • Top Pi Kappa Delta Member University

University of Central Missouri – Dale Carnegie Tournament Individual Events Division

• Willow Adamson (1st-year) – 5^th in After Dinner Speaking
• Willow Adamson (1st-year) – 4^th in Poetry Interpretation (AFA Qualification)
• Alyssa Frisbee (3rd-Year) – 3^rd in Dramatic Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Alyssa Frisbee (3rd-Year) – 7^th in Program Oral Interpretation
• Mikayla Hammer (2nd-Year) – 2^nd in Extemporaneous Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Mikayla Hammer (2nd-Year) – 3^rd in Persuasion (NFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) and Jessie Philips (4th-year) – 1^st in Duo Interpretation (AFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) – 2^nd in After Dinner Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) and Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 3^rd in Duo Interpretation
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) – 4^th in Prose Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Briggs Maynor (4th-year) – 5^th in Rhetorical Criticism
• Emery McEvoy (2nd-year) – 1^st in Impromptu Speaking
• Emery McEvoy (2nd-year) –  1^st in Rhetorical Criticism
• Emery McEvoy (2nd-year) – 5^th in Informative Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Ashton Mullen (3rd-Year) – 3^rd in Informative Speaking
• Annie Nguyen (1st-year) – 1^st in Informative Speaking (AFA Qualification)
• Annie Nguyen (1st-year) – 2^nd in Persuasion (AFA Qualification)
• Sawyer Partney (2nd-Year) – 6^th in Informative Speaking (NFA Qualification)
• Sawyer Partney (2nd-Year) – Semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking
• Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 4^th in After Dinner Speaking
• Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 4^th in Informative Speaking
• Cooper Spacil (2nd-Year) – 1^st in After Dinner Speaking (AFA Qualification)
• Cooper Spacil (2nd-Year) – 5^th in Extemporaneous Speaking
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 3^rd in Rhetorical Criticism (NFA Qualification)
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 5^th in Interviewing
• Jack Unsell (1st-year) – 6^th in Prose Interpretation (NFA Qualification)
• Lauren Weiss (2nd-Year) – 3^rd in After Dinner Speaking
• Lauren Weiss (2nd-Year) – Semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking

University of Central Missouri – Dale Carnegie Tournament Debate Division

Varsity NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate (NFA-LD) Division

• • Payten Luaders (3rd-Year) – 4^th Speaker

Junior NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate (NFA-LD) Division

• • Emmett Beeson (1st-year) – Semifinalist
  • Emmett Beeson (1st-year) – 3^rd Speaker
  • Nevaeh Carter (1st-year) – Quarterfinalist
  • Nevaeh Cater (1st-year) – 5^th Speaker
  • Tessa Kremer (1st-year) – Semifinalist
  • Tessa Kremer (1st-year) – 2^nd Speaker
  • Ammi McHugh (1st-year) – Quarterfinalist
  • Ammi McHugh (1st-year) – 6^th Speaker

University of Central Missouri – Dale Carnegie Tournament Team Awards

Pentathlon

• • Briggs Maynor (4th-year) – 2^nd Place
  • Emery McEvoy (2nd-Year) – 3^rd Place
  • Alex Peterson (4th-year) – 4^th Place

Team Sweepstakes

• • Debate – 1^st Place
  • Individual Events – 1^st Place
  • Overall – 1^st Place
  • Combined Swing Sweepstakes – 1^st Place

At a recent online asynchronous tournament (OATS), Truman Speech earned an impressive 3^rd Place finish out of 53 teams. According to the tournament hosts, Outspoken Culture, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing an equitable, inclusive, and empowering platform for collegiate speech competitions, this tournament was the second largest in all of OATS history. Truman’s team has been steadily collecting qualifications for the National Forensic Association (NFA) national tournament in April, with 7 speech members and 4 debaters qualified across 31 individual slots.

While Truman students begin to prepare for finals, the team plans to round out their semester with three more competitions within the next month to stay polished over the coming breaks.

In addition to the most recent OATS tournament, the team also traveled to two in-person tournaments at the beginning of November. See below and on the team’s Instagram (@Trumanforensicunion) for the results:

OATS #3

Out of 180 students, speech team member Briggs Maynor (’26) finished 2^nd Place in Individual Sweepstakes. He received this recognition due to placing 2^nd in Poetry and 3^rd in Dramatic Interpretation.

Alex Peterson (’26) was also among the top point earners at the tournament, placing 4^th in Individual Sweepstakes. She received 2^nd in After-Dinner Speaking, 4^th in Informative, and 6^th in Communication Analysis.

Ashton Mullen (’26) placed 2^nd in Extemporaneous Speaking out of 46 competitors.

Finally, freshman and novice team member, Emery McEvoy (’28), was in the top 12 in Impromptu Speaking out of 77 competitors, the largest event at the tournament.

Redbird LD Tournament

A group of debaters traveled to Bloomington, IL on November 4-6 for the annual Lincoln-Douglas debate tournament hosted by Illinois State University. Truman walked away with three new qualifications to NFA.

Sophomore Payten Luaders (’27) was a Semifinalist (TOP 4) in the Varsity division and earned 5^th Place Varsity Speaker.

Ben Croat (’27) was the 2^nd Place tournament runner-up in the Junior Varsity division and was 4^th Place JV Speaker.

Freshman Ryan Franklin (’28) was a Semifinalist (TOP 4) in the JV division, losing on a 2-1 decision. Ryan also accumulated enough points to earn 3^rd Place JV Speaker.

Sawyer Partney (’28) was the 3^rd Place Speaker in the Novice division.

Norton IE Tournament

The same weekend the debate team traveled to ISU, members of the speech team went to Peoria, IL for the Norton individual events tournament hosted by Bradley University.

Alex Peterson was 5^th in After-Dinner Speaking out of 39 competitors and made it to the Semifinal (TOP 16) round of Impromptu out of 68 participants.

Emery McEvoy was the Tournament Champion in Novice Communication Analysis, in addition to placing 3^rd in Novice After-Dinner Speaking and 6^th in Novice Impromptu.

Freshman Mikayla Hammer (’28) also placed 4^th in Novice Impromptu out of 38 competitors.

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.

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 3^rd place in Poetry, 4^th place in Drama, and 6^th place in Prose. Briggs received enough points to earn 4^th place in Individual Sweepstakes.
• Alex Peterson (’26) received 4^th place in Impromptu.
• Bryna Adamson (’27) was 5^th in Persuasion.
• Mikayla Hammer (’28) was 6^th and Top Novice in Persuasion and a Semifinalist (top 12) in Impromptu.
• Emery McEvoy (’28) earned 3^rd 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 3^rd overall above teams from Ball State University and the University of Illinois Chicago. Many students received recognition:

• Briggs Maynor earned 4^th in Poetry, 5^th inDrama, and 6^th in Communication Analysis.
• Alex Peterson received 3^rd in Informative and 4^th in After-Dinner Speaking.
• Ashton Mullen (’26) earned 2^nd in Novice Extemp and 3^rd in Novice Impromptu.
• Bryna Adamson was 6^th in Persuasion.
• Mikayla Hammer earned 1^st in Novice Extemp, 4^th in Novice Impromptu, and 5^th and Top Novice in Persuasion.
• Emery McEvoy was 2^nd in Novice Impromptu, 3^rd and Top Novice in After-Dinner Speaking, and 5^th and Top Novice in Communication Analysis.
• Jasmin Elwood (’28) was 4^th in Novice Extemp.

On day 2 of the ISU tournament…

• Briggs Maynor earned 5^th in Communication Analysis, 5^thin Drama, and 6^th in Poetry.
• Alex Peterson was 2^nd in Informative, 4^th in Impromptu, and 6^th 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 2^nd 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 2^nd in Debate Sweepstakes, 2^nd in Speech Sweepstakes, and 2^nd Overall. Across the entire weekend and both parts of the tournament, the team earned 2^nd Place.

In After-Dinner Speaking…

Emery McEvoy placed 2^nd at the Mule at 1^st at the Carnegie.

In Communication Analysis…

Emery McEvoy placed 2^nd at both the Mule and the Carnegie.

In Extemporaneous Speaking…

Mikayla Hammer earned 1^st Place and Ashton Mullen received 5^th at the Mule.

In Impromptu Speaking…

Mikayla Hammer was 1^st and Emery McEvoy was 6^th at the Mule. At the Carnegie, Emery was 5^th and Cooper Spacil (’28) placed 7^th.

In Informative Speaking…

Rashed Sohan (’26) earned 5^th Place at both the Mule and the Carnegie.

In Persuasive Speaking…

Mikayla Hamer earned 1^st Place, Ashton Mullen received 2^nd, and Sawyer Partney (’28) was 6^th at the Mule. Ashton then earned 3^rd Place at the Carnegie.

In Program Oral Interpretation…

Lauren Weiss (’28) placed 5^th at the Carnegie portion of the tournament.

In Prose…

Jasmin Elwood received 2^nd at the Mule. At the Carnegie, Jasmin placed 4^th and Lauren Weiss placed 2^nd.

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 4^th Place Speaker and Adli was 7^th 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 15^th Speaker.

In Varsity IPDA…

Payten Luaders (’27) made it to the Quarterfinal round (TOP 8) and was 3^rd Place Speaker. Aiden Breesawitz (’26) earned 9^th Place Speaker.

In Novice Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate…

Adli Jacobs was a Semifinalist (TOP 4) and placed as 3^rd Speaker.

In Junior Varsity LD…

At the Mule, Ryan Franklin (’28) was 6^th Place Speaker.

At the Carnegie portion, Ben Croat was 1^st Place Speaker, Mikayla Hammer was 5^th Speaker, and Ryan Franklin was 6^th Speaker.

As one of the top point earners at the tournament who competed in both speech and debate, Ashton Mullen received 5^th 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 1^st 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 1^st Place in Impromptu Speaking, in addition to earning 2^nd Place in After-Dinner Speaking and Prose. Earning the most points individually out of all 180 students competing at the tournament, Alex also received 1^st Place in Individual Sweepstakes.

Briggs Maynor placed 2^nd in Communication Analysis.

Ben Grandstaff (’27) earned 5^th Place in Extemporaneous Speaking.

Mikayla Hammer placed 2^nd in Extemporaneous Speaking and 5^th in Impromptu Speaking.

Jack Schroeder (’28) earned 6^th Place in Extemporaneous Speaking.

Emery McEvoy was 4^th overall and the Top Novice competitor in both Impromptu Speaking and Communication Analysis, in addition to winning Tournament Champion and 1^st 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 4^th Place finish in Individual Sweepstakes.

– – –

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.

At Washburn, freshman Aiden Breesawitz and sophomore Eli Bartz finished with positive records. Breesawitz finished as a quarterfinalist and earned his NFA qualification.

At Western Kentucky, juniors Alicia Stout and Elijah Baum were invited to the Alexis Elliott Memorial Round Robin, an exclusive competition where only 10 debaters in the nation were able to participate. Stout finished as third place speaker. Breesawitz and Baum were also invited to the Rising Stars Round Robin, which is intended for debaters going into their second year of debate. Truman continued its success at the WKU Debate the following days. Stout was a quarterfinalist and sixth speaker. Baum finished as 10th place speaker.