On October 22nd the Lafayette Forensics Society travelled to Suffolk University in Boston, MA for the Suffolk University Fall Classic. This was the first time the team had attended this tournament in the last seven years. Seven students attended the tournament along with debate coach, John Boyer.

In NFA-LD debate, Junior Joshua Geesey led a group of first year students at the tournament. Ryan Raesly, Justin Horn and Ryan Monahan were all competing in their second collegiate tournament and their first in the Open division after debating in the Novice division a few weeks prior. Ryan Monahan finished in 8th place, securing the last nationals qualifying slot offered by the tournament. For Ryan Raesly, it was a much more exciting debut in the Open division. Ryan debated alongside Joshua Geesey in the semi-finals of the tournament where both debaters defeated their opponents on 3-0 decisions. Ryan and Josh closed out the final round, which was not held on the account that both debaters were from the same school. As the higher seed going into the single-elimination rounds, Ryan Raesly was named tournament champion! This was the first 1-2 finish of the year for Lafayette and it was enough for the team to be named team champions of the tournament.

In Individual Events, several first-year students also had success. Justin Horn finished 5th in Impromptu Speaking, Daniela Filip finished 2nd in Prose and Ashli Austin finished 2nd in Dramatic Interpretation. All three are now qualified for nationals in those events and their results placed the team in third for the team portion of the competition.

The Lafayette Forensics Society continues its season with a tournament at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, NH on November 5th.