Forensics Warms Up for Nationals

 
Truman’s forensic union (speech and debate team) concluded its regular season competition with a small crew at the Big Red Bird Lincoln-Douglas debate tournament, hosted at Illinois State University, Feb. 25-26. This tournament is often considered to be the national warm-up tournament for debate.
 
With only two competitors traveling for the weekend, the team picked up enough wins to earn third in debate sweepstakes. First-year Caleb Daniels advanced to the octofinal round of the varsity division in Lincoln-Douglas debate based on a strong preliminary round showing. His teammate, first-year Luke Frogge, also picked up several wins in the varsity division, contributing to the sweepstakes award.
 
Truman forensics is now ready to turn its attention to the National Forensic Association Championship Tournament in mid-April, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

This year’s national qualifiers include: Mahliyah Adkins-Threats, afterdinner speaking, poetry interpretation; Tyler Behymer, LD debate; Johnathan Christy, LD debate, extemporaneous speaking; Caleb Daniels, LD debate; Luke Frogge, LD debate; Jared Roberts, LD debate, extemporaneous speaking; Jonathan Rogers, impromptu speaking; Austin Sopko, afterdinner speaking, impromptu speaking; Connor Stewart, LD debate; and Adrien Zambrano, prose interpretation, impromptu speaking.
 
Participation in the forensics program is open to any Truman student in good standing, regardless of prior speech and debate experience. For more information on how to get involved, visit forensics.truman.edu or contact Christopher Outzen, director of individual events, or Craig Hennigan, assistant director of forensics.