Forensics Earns Multiple Awards At Tournaments

Students from Truman’s Forensics Union earned awards at two tournaments last week.

Debaters competed at Illinois State University at the Fall Red Bird. Freshman novice Megan Trent achieved second speaker, as well as tournament finalist, in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, earning a qualification to the national tournament in April. Sophomore Alicia Stout also got to the quarterfinals in Lincoln-Douglas Debate in the open division.

Speech competitors traveled to Peoria, Illinois, to the Norton Tournament at Bradley University. Senior Jackson Elder made it to the semifinals in impromptu speaking and achieved fourth place in extemporaneous speaking. Senior Kayla Gerlt came in fifth place in dramatic interpretation. Sophomore Ella Schnake made it to the semifinals in impromptu speaking, as well as prose interpretation and was the tournament champion in dramatic interpretation.

As a school, Truman earned enough sweepstakes points to outscore teams from Purdue University, Ohio University and Illinois State. In December, the team will travel to Webster University for the Gateway Swing and debate will compete virtually at University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the Fall Finale debate tournament.

Any students interested in joining the Forensics Union should contact Craig Hennigan at chennigan@truman.edu or Ben Davis at bdavis@truman.edu.