Truman Forensics Brings Home National Champion, Additional Honors

Truman forensics team attended the first two of its four national tournaments, bringing home a national champion and multiple elimination round finalists.

For their first nationals of the post-season, the team attended the Pi Kappa Delta (PKD) comprehensive tournament at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, March 13-16. This tournament hosted more than 50 teams and close to 1,900 entries, the largest the tournament has been since 2015.

Alex Peterson, junior justice systems and pre-law major, was the national champion in impromptu speaking, placing first out of 216 competitors.

The team earned six other placements in national final rounds. In speech events, Peterson placed second in student scholarship and fourth in informative speaking. In podcasting, Cooper Spacil, first-year political science and pre-law major, placed third, and Emery McEvoy, first-year accounting and pre-law major, placed second.

Other students made it to the semifinal or quarterfinal round in their respective events. Being a semifinalist in speech equates to roughly the top 12 in an event, and in debate, the top four teams or individuals. Semifinalists included: Briggs Maynor, junior chemistry major, in after-dinner speaking; Zoe Walker, sophomore English major, in poetry; Bryna Adamson, sophomore biology major, in prose; Mikayla Hammer, first-year business administration and pre-law major, and McEvoy in informative speaking and NPDA debate.

The team also had six performances in quarterfinals, or the top 24 in speech or top eight individuals or teams in debate. Quarterfinalists included Peterson in after-dinner speaking and persuasion, Maynor in poetry, Alyssa Frisbie, sophomore communication major, in program oral interpretation, Spacil in impromptu, and Sawyer Partney, first-year economics, philosophy and religion, and pre-law major, in novice IPDA.

Partney was also the first-place speaker in Novice IPDA debate out of 72 entrants. Hammer placed as fourth speaker in NPDA and Spacil was ninth speaker in novice IPDA debate.

Out of all the competitors at the tournament, Peterson was the 10th place overall competitor in speech.

Six other team members received excellence awards, indicating they were in the top 30% of entrants for their respective events. Adamson in after-dinner speaking, Spacil in extemporaneous speaking, Hammer in persuasion and interviewing, and both Lauren Weiss, first-year biology and pre-med major, and Maynor in student scholarship.

At PKD, the team earned a combined eighth place out of 54 schools. The speech team placed seventh in the large-entries division and debate placed fourth in tier two for medium-sized teams.

The second nationals the team attended was the Asynchronous Speech Championship (ASC), an online tournament, March 26-30. Students submitted pre-recorded videos of their speeches which were judged throughout the week asynchronously. Students then learned of their placements at the end of the tournament. This tournament hosted more than 280 students from across the U.S.

Quarterfinalists at ASC included Peterson and Maynor in after-dinner speaking, Maynor in dramatic interpretation, Ben Grandstaff, sophomore psychology major, and Spacil in extemporaneous speaking, Hammer in impromptu and persuasion, and Jessie Philips, junior political science major, and Maynor in poetry.

Semifinalists included McEvoy in after-dinner speaking, Hammer in extemporaneous speaking, Peterson in impromptu and Maynor in informative speaking.

First-year team members, Weiss and Hammer, were also acknowledged as members of the National Novice Team, a special recognition highlighting the commitment of first-year collegiate competitors to their respective programs and growth during their first year.

Out of the 46 teams participating at ASC, Truman placed ninth in the nation overall.

The team finishes their season with two more national tournaments this month, the American Forensic Association (AFA) National Speech Tournament at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and the National Forensic Association (NFA) championship tournament at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Students interested in joining the Forensics Union should contact Ben Davis at bdavis@truman.edu or visit forensics.truman.edu/joinus. Scholarships and course credit are available. Tryouts are open to students from all majors and all levels of public speaking and debate experience.