SUU Forensics Report from 'Swing' Tournament

Published: October 26, 2004 | Author: Dr. Terry West, Forensics Director | Read Time: 2 minutes

The Forensics Team of Southern Utah University returned from a successful weekend at the "Southern California Forensics Swing,"--two individual event tournaments sandwiched around one parliamentary debate tournament hosted by California State University--Long Beach and Biola University on its campus in La Mirada, CA.

SUU placed third overall in the individual event team sweepstakes competition and fourth in parliamentary debate sweepstakes. Nineteen colleges and universities from California and Arizona joined the SUU team in the competition. SUU took third behind Arizona State University and California State University--Los Angeles, and placed ahead of CSU--Long Beach and Point Loma Nazarene. In the debate competition, SUU trailed Claremont College, Long Beach, and Pt. Loma, while finishing ahead of UCLA, Southern California University, and Vanguard.

Every student on the SUU squad took home trophy honors from the tournament. Sherry Nay, senior team captain from Gunnison, UT, became the first team member this season to qualify for the American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament with first place finishes in the Informative Speaking competition. Nay also added a second place in Communication Analysis, fourth in Extemporaneous Speaking, and fifth in Persuasion.

Phil Martin, a junior from Orem, UT, was also a double competition champ. Martin won Persuasion, and also took Impromptu Speaking. He added fourth in After Dinner Speaking to his second in Persuasion and sixth in ADS.

Jake Neilson, junior from Fremont, UT, was third in Informative and Communication Analysis, to go with a seventh in Extemporaneous.

Britany Smith, senior from Vernal, UT, was fourth in Dramatic Interpretation and third in Program Oral Interpretation.

Jessica Burton, sophomore from Layton, UT, placed fourth in Persuasion.

Lynley Peterson, a first-year student from Juab, UT, was ranked Top Novice in both Poetry and Persuasion, and placed third in open division Poetry.

Jeff Spears, junior from Carbon, UT, rounded out SUU's IE score with a Top Novice in Extemporaneous.

In the parliamentary debate competition, Spears teamed with sophomore Jonathan Jones of Taylorsville, UT, to win four of six preliminary debate rounds, finishing10th among 27 teams in open division debate. Smith and Martin teamed for two more wins to fill out SUU's sweepstakes effort, and Smith was 12th among the 54 individual debates in the best speaker competition.

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