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by Elaine Huang (’19)

MUNCIE, IN – After an entire academic year of writing and delivering speeches, perfecting performances, and accumulating research, the Lafayette Forensics Society ended their competitive season at the National Forensic Association’s championship tournament.  Hosted this year by Ball State University, the tournament featured 80 colleges and universities from around the nation.  Seven students qualified and accompanied the three coaches and one alumni volunteer to the prestigious tournament.

In debate, Seniors Vanessa Milan and Joseph Rothschild qualified for the elimination rounds with 4-2 records.  First-year competitor, Elaine Huang, narrowly missed with a 3-3 record in her first nationals.  Vanessa Milan advanced to the octofinal (final 16) after defeating Truman State University’s Dillon Laaker.  In the octofinals, Milan ended her fantastic career against Western Kentucky University’s Damon Brown.  Brown would go on to finish second in the entire tournament.  Joseph Rothschild advanced to the quarterfinal round (final 8).  Joseph defeated students from Western Kentucky University and Truman State University.  In the quarterfinals, Rothschild fell on a 2-1 decision to the eventual national champion, Alex Glanzman from Kansas City Kansas Community College.  These results were enough to place Lafayette in 4th place as a team in debate sweepstakes.  This is the fourth year in a row that Lafayette has placed in the top 5 and the 9th year in the top 10.  With only three students entered in debate, this is an amazing accomplishment for the team considering that the first and second placed teams had 8 and 14 entries respectively.

Five students participated in speech events at the national tournament.  Cassidy Reller (’16) and Vanessa Milan (’16) joined Aaron Walker (’18), Fayola Fair (’19), and Michael Wellnitz (’19) as qualifiers.  Despite not advancing any students to the elimination rounds, a couple of near misses and strong performances were enough to place Lafayette 5th in Division III team sweepstakes.

The students weren’t the only ones to win awards, Assistant Director John Boyer, was inducted into the National Forensic Association’s Hall of Fame.  The Hall of Fame considers three primary criteria for inclusion, competitive success, contributions to forensics, and contributions as a professional.  John competed at Otterbein College from 1997-2000 and has excelled as a coach at Lafayette and has made countless contributions to collegiate forensics.  He currently serves as a member of the NFA National Council as the Chair of NFA-LD Debate.  20 individuals were nominated this year and John was one of six to be inducted.  It is one of the highest honors that a coach can receive and the team is very proud.

Lafayette Forensics Society will return in the fall to welcome a brand new crop of students at the fall retreat in September!