Forensics Earns 16th Place in the Nation
The team had 14 students qualify for the tournament and competed in a total of 42 entries, one of the largest entries in recent Truman forensics history. In preparation for NFA, members of the debate team also competed at the fifth annual Grand Prix, a double-elimination round debate tournament.
In debate:
• Junior Alicia Stout was a double octofinalist (top 20) in Lincoln-Douglas debate at NFA. At the Grand Prix, she was selected to the inaugural NFA-LD All-American Team. She was voted third best in the country by the NFA-LD Coaches Association based on her regular season performance and earned summa cum laude distinction for her 4.0 GPA.
• Junior Elijah Baum earned eighth place speaker at the Grand Prix, and was also selected as an Academic All-American magna cum laude for his debate prowess and having above a 3.5 GPA.
• Out of 21 debate teams competing at NFA, the debaters earned eighth place in the nation.
The speech team also performed well at NFA:
• Freshman Jessie Philips was an octofinalist in poetry (top 48).
• Freshman Briggs Maynor was an octofinalist in poetry and in duo interpretation with junior Ella Schnake.
• Freshman Alex Peterson was a quarterfinalist in communication analysis (top 24).
• Schanke was an octofinalist in poetry and in duo with Briggs, a quarterfinalist in dramatic interpretation, and made it to the semifinal round in prose interpretation (top 12).
• The speech team placed sixth in the nation in the President’s I Division for medium- to large-entry teams.
Also in attendance at NFA were senior Maya Krump, juniors Megan Ford and Jillian Humke, sophomore Eli Bartz, and freshmen Anna Hans, Aiden Breesawitz and Brynna Seim.
