Press Releases

The Truman Forensics Union competed virtually at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. This massive tournament had 70 schools represented, and while competition was tight, Truman had great success earning two new qualifications to the national tournament.

Freshman Elijah Baum took fourth place speaker in the junior division Lincoln-Douglas debate and advanced to the octofinal round.

Freshman Jackson Boeck earned a seventh place speaker award and advanced all the way to the final round in the junior division of Lincoln-Douglas debate. This qualifies Boeck to appear at the national tournament later this year.

Junior Michael Garret earned ninth place speaker in the open division of Lincoln-Douglas debate and was an octofinalist. This win also earns Garret his national qualification.

And after winning the junior division at the Western Kentucky tournament, nobody informed freshman Alicia Stout that the open division was supposed to be more difficult. She advanced to semifinals in the open division and took the top speaker award for Lincoln-Douglas debate.

The Truman Forensics Union is a co-curricular group building skills in speech and debate and representing the school across the country. For more information about the team, contact Craig Hennigan, interim director of forensics, at chennigan@truman.edu.

Additionally, the team took third in team sweepstakes on the second day of the tournament and took home third place overall. Sophomore Audrey Baker also placed third in quadrathon for the weekend, a category for students competing in four or more events.

On the first day of the tournament, Baker moved all four of her events to finals. She would go on to finish third in all of them, including afterdinner speaking, program oral interpretation, dramatic interpretation and duo interpretation with junior Austin Sopko. In addition to sharing third in duo, Sopko also made finals in afterdinner speaking and was named tournament champion in the event. He has made finals with this speech every tournament this year, winning twice. First-year Korrin Comley has had similar successes, reaching finals in informative speaking at four out of five tournaments this year. She also took home a tournament championship and top novice in this event, her second championship with this speech. Comley also reached finals in persuasive speaking, placing third and top novice in the event. First-year Will Henrickson placed sixth in extemporaneous speaking and was fourth and top novice in dramatic interpretation. Junior Rebecca Walker placed sixth in program oral interpretation.

On the second day of the tournament, Baker returned to finals in three of her four events. She finished fourth in afterdinner speaking, second in dramatic interpretation and second in duo interpretation with Sopko. Sopko placed fifth in impromptu speaking and in afterdinner speaking in addition to his second-place duo with Baker. Comley returned to finals in informative speaking, placing second and receiving another top novice award. Henrickson placed fifth in dramatic interpretation and fourth in extemporaneous speaking. Walker flipped her events, this time placing second in afterdinner speaking. Additionally, first-year Malena Gansmann joined the ranks of finals on day two, placing sixth in prose interpretation.

In total, Truman forensics earned more than 20 individual awards and five new national qualifications. This successful weekend concludes the fall travel season, but the team will be back the first week of spring semester taking a small crew to the Iowa Swing in Cedar Falls.

For more information on how to get involved, visit forensics.truman.edu or contact Christopher Outzen, director of forensics, or Craig Hennigan, assistant director of forensics.

-Courtesy: Truman Today