What’s better than free coffee and a made-to-order omelette bar? The annual OchoIE forensics tournament, of course! This past weekend saw the Lafayette Forensics Society host the OchoIE tournament. Aptly named for the notorious 8-round debate prelims which are wholly unique to this tournament, the OchoIE saw its 17th year this weekend. Tournament director and Director of Forensics Scott Placke was the puppet master, ensuring that the tournament ran as smoothly as possible and that students, coaches & judges alike all had a memorable experience. In order to guarantee this, Placke included special amenities typically unavailable at other forensics tournaments, including the aforementioned made-to-order omelette bar, donuts and coffee for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and a judges lounge stocked with an abundance of snacks & drinks. Working behind the scenes to ensure that breaks, outrounds and results were properly tabulated were John Boyer & Alexis Hughes. But perhaps the most instrumental in the success of the weekend were Natalia Ferruggia and Ben Risley, both co-captains of the squad. Natalia and Ben ran around campus incessantly, ensuring that rounds started on time, responding to judges’ many qualms, setting up trophies and the lounge, and just generally making sure that everybody was doing well during the weekend. The overall team sweepstakes results of the tournament were as follows:

West Chester University was in 5th place

Hofstra University was in 4th place

James Madison University was in 3rd place

Cedarville University was in 2nd place

And in 1st place, the tournament champions were Cornell University!

From the Lafayette Forensics Society – A big thank you to everybody who made this tournament possible. We loved being your host, and look forward to seeing you all again next year! Go Pards!

(Also – keep an eye out for an article that will be published by The Lafayette on Friday regarding the tournament!)

AUSTIN, TX – Rebecca Koury and Chris Kirch competed at the Interstate Oratorical Association’s (IOA) 148th annual championship tournament. Senior, Shirley Liu qualified for the tournament and fellow senior, Jefrey Alexander, qualified as alternate but neither were unable to go. First-year competitor, Chris Kirch, filled in admirably! Both competitors did the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania proud! Lafayette finished with 4 of the top 5 competitors in the state and was able to send two competitors to IOA again this year!

IOA is the longest running public speaking competition in North America. The first tournament was first held in 1874 in Galesburg, IL and had been held without interruption in some capacity every year since . Two students are selected by each state to participate. In 2022, just like this year, the representatives from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were both students from Lafayette College. Traditionally hosted in a unique setting (like in front of the Liberty Bell or Mount Rushmore), this year the tournament was held at the University of Texas-Austin.

Attending this prestigious competition is an honor. Lafayette has a long history of representing Pennsylvania at this tournament. Past IOA competitors include William Jennings Bryan, Senator Robert LaFollette, and Senator George McGovern. Both student’s speeches will be published in the journal Winning Orations.

Congratulations, Shirley, Rebecca, Jefrey, and Chris!

[Peoria, IL] For only the second time this year, the full-team traveled together! Debaters and speech competitors arrived at at Bradley University in Peoria, IL ready to perform one last time. Scott Placke (Director of Forensics), John Boyer (Assistant Director of Forensics), and Luisa Gunn (Assistant Debate Coach) spent the week getting the students ready to compete!

After FIVE grueling and rewarding days of competition, Lafayette placed several events into the elimination rounds! Four seniors gave their last performances this year at NFA.  Josh Hale advanced to the quarterfinals in debate and took home 5th speaker.  Together with fellow senior, Ben Herman, they finished 7th as a team in debate sweepstakes!  Jefrey Alexander advanced to the quarterfinal round in POI and the octofinal round in INFO!  Jefrey and senior Shirley Liu, helped power the IE team to 7th place in the President’s II division for the second straight year!  We love our seniors and will be very sad to see them graduate.

However, the future does look bright for Lafayette Forensics!  Miles Parker advanced to the octofinal round of Extemp, Natalia Ferruggia placed 2nd and 3rd in novice DI and novice prose, and Ben Risley finished 3rd in novice impromptu.

After a long national tournament, the students were excited to get back home and start preparing for next year.  Please follow our instagram for more updates!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CrRcGOEOL9L/

For the first time in team history, the Lafayette Forensics Society competed in the International Forensics Association’s championship tournament!  While the host of the tournament changes each year, Lafayette was lucky enough to attend while the tournament was hosted in Japan.  Director of Forensics, Scott Placke accompanied Assistant Director John Boyer (and his wife!) and three of our seniors, Josh Hale, Ben Herman, and Shirley Liu to the tournament.

I know what you really want to see are all the awesome pictures we took on our trip, but in between sightseeing days, we DID in fact compete at a tournament!  Here are the results:

Ben Herman – 4th place EXT, Bronze IPDA
Shirley Liu – 4th place PER, 5th place CA

And HERE are the pictures!  Nationals and IOA updates to come soon!

(1) Forest shrine at the base of the ancient path up Mt. Fuji (2) Hungry Josh, Shirley not actually surprised.

(1) Cherry blossoms are starting to bloom! (2) Inokashira Benzaiten Buddhist shrine

(1) Laputa robot on the roof of the Studio Ghibli Museum (2) Sriracha vending machine!

(1) Studio Ghibli Museum – Exterior (2) Ben, Josh, and Shirley taking a break on the breakwall by Tokyo Bay

(1) Shirley, Ben, and Josh are ready to get back to sight-seeing! (2) The team at the Meiji Shrine

(1) Cat Cafe! (2) Team dinner after a long tournament day, Ben unsuccessfully suppressing a smile

(1) Just two seniors taking turn taking new Linked-In photos (2) Ben, Josh, and John took in an FC Tokyo game!

[Easton, PA] As the team starts to wind down it’s competitive season, the PFA State Tournament begins our slate of capstone tournaments! For the 5th consecutive year, Lafayette has been crowned the Pennsylvania State Champions!

As the host of this year’s tournament, Lafayette won NINE individual championships en route to the title.  Senior’s Shirley Liu and Jefrey Lopez finished their final PFA in style with 6 state championships between them!  In addition to all of the titles, Rebecca Koury and Shirley Liu both qualified for the Interstate Oratorical Association’s championship tournament, the longest running speech competition in North America!  It’s a very special honor, only two students are selected per state and we’ve been chosen as BOTH representatives of Pennsylvania!

For a full breakdown of the results check out our Instagram post here!  A trip to Tokyo, the NFA-LD Grand Prix, and NFA will round out the season, stay tuned for more!

Happy Holidays from the Lafayette Forensics Society!

It was an eventful and event-filled semester for the Lafayette Forensics Society!  The team has grown and we are VERY excited about our new members.  While EVERYONE has grown, improved, and had success, our new competitors have really shone.  We are looking forward to watching them continue to improve next semester and in the future!  With over 10 individual and team championships, the team is showing that the future is now.

Our seniors, Jefrey Alexander, Josh Hale, Ben Herman, and Shirley Liu have crushed it.  All four of them have worked hard to making their senior years demonstrate their competitive and personal growth!  We can’t wait to see what comes next for them.

The semester might not be fully back to normal.  We’ve competed online AND in person, but we are slowly discovering our new normal.  Between hosting a tournament for the first time in a few years to welcoming an exciting group of first year competitors, you can expect big things from the team in the future.  The spring semester will get its start in a month’s time at the Hell Froze Over Swing!  Debaters will start a few weeks later with the Gorlok Gala at Webster University!

For a full breakdown of our results and awards, follow our us at https://www.instagram.com/lafayetteforensics/ Enjoy the holidays and we’ll see you next semester!

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Kelly Mwaamba (’22), has finishes her final tournament as a semi-finalist in the Interstate Oratorical Association’s (IOA) 147th annual championship tournament.  Shirley Liu (’23) also narrowly missed the elimination rounds.  Both competitors did the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania proud!

Congratulations, Kelly and Shirley!

[Normal, IL] For only the second time this year, the entire team travelled to an in person tournament. Debaters and speech competitors arrived at Illinois State University in Normal, IL ready to perform one last time. Director of Debate, John Boyer, was the tournament director, but Scott Placke (Director of Forensics), Luisa Gunn (Assistant Debate Coach), and Saeed Malami (alumni judge) spent the week getting the students ready to compete!

After four grueling and rewarding days of competition, Lafayette placed NINE events into the elimination rounds! Junior, Shirley Liu, advanced to the Octofinal round in Rhetorical Criticism! James Hixenbaugh finished 4th in the novice impromptu final round! Baris Yazici was crowned the novice NATIONAL CHAMPION in Lincoln-Douglas debate! But it was the seniors that stole the show. Sophomore, Jacob Moldover advanced to the Octofinal round in Lincoln-Douglas debate before losing on a 2-1 decision to the eventual national champion. Jacob also made it to the quarterfinal round in Extemp!

Senior, Yordanos Mengistu, achieved her goal of debating in the elimination rounds at the national tournament and did! Yordanos lost to a very tough opponent, but we are so proud of her double octofinalist award!

It was senior, Kelly Mwaamba, who stole the show. Kelly put together the single best performance at NFA in Lafayette history. Kelly made TWO national final rounds, finishing 5th and 6th in Prose and Persuasion respectively. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Kelly also made ADS and Impromptu quarterfinals and octofinals in Poetry.

As a team, the LDers finished 7th in team sweepstakes and the speech team took 7th in the President’s II division and was 17th place overall, one of the highest finishes in team history.

After a long national tournament, the students were excited to get back home and start preparing for next year. Everyone except for two students. State champion, Shirley Liu, and Kelly Mwaamba qualified to represent the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the Interstate Oratorical Association’s national tournament…

[Lincoln, NE] Lafayette Forensics Society travelled to its FIRST in-person national tournament since 2019 last weekend.  Kelly Mwaamba (’22) and Shirley Liu (’23) made the trip with Director of Forensics, Scott Placke to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the American Forensics Association’s national tournament.  The tournament is very prestigious and has a rigorous qualification process.  Both students qualified multiple events for the tournament, just attending is a great honor and both students should be extremely proud of the hard work they put in over the course of the season!

Kelly Mwaamba made history by being the first Lafayette competitor to compete in a final round at AFA!  Kelly took 6th place in Prose Interpretation and also advanced to the Quarterfinal round in Persuasion.  That’s not all.  Kelly was also named an AFA All-American!  This is the third straight year that a Lafayette student has been given this honor and the only three in the program’s history.  This recognition is a testament to the student’s competitive and academic success as well as commitment to service.  It is one of the highest non-competitive honors you can receive in forensics and we are very proud!

The National Forensic Association’s championship tournament is around the corner.  A large group of 15 students will accompany the the coaches to Bloomington-Normal, IL this week!  Wish us luck!

(Westminster, PA) The Lafayette forensics team travelled to Westminster College for the 2022 Pennsylvania state tournament.  For many members of the team, this trip was extra special because it was the first in-person tournament in more than two years!  Traveling together as a team again was a special experience and the team earned NINE state championships!  In addition to winning the tournament, Lafayette won state championships in After Dinner Speaking, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo, Informative, Persuasion, Poetry, and Programmed Oral Interpretation!

The team still has three competitions left; the American Forensics Association national tournament, the National Forensics Association’s championship tournament, and the Interstate Oratorical Association’s championship.  The season is starting to wind down, but there are some big tournaments still to come!

Full results
Parliamentary Debate: 2nd – Josh Hale/Ben Herman, Semifinalist – Ceci Montufar/Baris Yazici
After Dinner Speaking: State Champion – Kelly Mwaamba
Dramatic Interpretation: State Champion – Image Patterson, 2nd – Kelly Mwaamba, 3rd – Danny Demelfi
Dramatic Duo Interpretation: State Champion – Danny Demelfi/Kelly Mwaamba
Extemporanous Speaking: 2nd – Josh Hale, 5th – Michael Sun
Impromptu Speaking: 2nd – James Hixenbaugh
Informative Speaking: State Champion – Shirley Liu, 2nd – Michael Sun
Persuasive Speaking: State Champion – Shirley Liu, 3rd – Kelly Mwaamba
Poetry Interpretation: State Champion – Image Patterson, 3rd – Kelly Mwaamba, 4th – Ronnie Ward
Programmed Oral Interpretation: State Champion – Danny Demelfi
Prose Interpretation: 3rd – Ronnie Ward, 5th – Kelly Mwaamba, 6th – Michael Sun
Rhetorical Criticism: 2nd – Shirley Liu

Individual Sweepstakes: State Champion, Kelly Mwaamba

Team Sweepstakes: State Champions, Lafayette College