Press Releases

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.

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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.

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.