Miami's forensics team wins in national tournaments

The Miami University forensics team competed in the Delta Sigma Rho - Tau Kappa Alpha National Tournament the first weekend in March in Clemson, S.C., and in the Novice National Tournament the second weekend in March in Indianapolis, Ind., with winning results.

At Clemson:

• The team won the parliamentary debate category
• The team of Nick Masso and Michael Salvadore and the team of Rebekah Linton and Matt Martin were national finalists.
• The teams won three speaker awards: Michael Salvadore placed first, Rebekah Linton placed second and Alexander Nixon placed fifth.

This success combined with the success of the students competing in individual events earned Miami enough points to be crowned the DSR-TKA Overall National Champions. DSR-TKA is a national honorary speech organization.
Individual events comprise public speaking presentations, oral interpretation competitors (one-person theater without costumes, lighting or makeup) and limited preparation events, which are impromptu or extemporaneous presentations.

in Indianapolis:

• The team entered 22 slots and had 18 slots advance to out-rounds, placing second in overall sweepstakes.
• Miami students placed first and second in both extemporaneous speaking and prose interpretation.
• Alexander Nixon placed first in extemporaneous speaking, fourth in impromptu speaking and impromptu sales, sixth in persuasive speaking and was a semifinalist in parliamentary debate with Casey McDonald.
• Casey McDonald placed second in extemporaneous speaking, third in impromptu speaking, fourth in rhetorical criticism, fifth in after-dinner speaking and was a semifinalist in parliamentary debate with Alexander Nixon.
• Grace Eichler placed fifth in duo interpretation with Evan Swhear and placed second in prose interpretation, poetry interpretation, dramatic interpretation, after dinner speaking and in overall individual sweepstakes.
• Evan Swhear placed first in prose interpretation, third in program oral interpretation, fourth in poetry interpretation and fifth in duo interpretation with Grace Eichler.

Miami won the Quality Award with a point score believed to be the highest ratio in the tournament’s history. The team’s 18 finalists took home 23 awards.

Darren Epping, communication instructor and assistant director of forensics, and Justin Foote, communication instructor, regularly coach the team up to 30 hours per week or more and make long travels with the team to tournaments on weekends.

“It is not just the amount of work that has caused our team to be so successful, it is the quality of the work they do. We are truly lucky to have such talented young coaches working with our program. If you see them please congratulate them on what is turning out to be an outstanding year,” said Todd Holm, director of forensics.

In less than a month the team will compete in the National Forensics Association National Tournament at Illinois State University, considered the toughest competition of the year.