Eastern Michigan University's forensics team took first
place in 10 of 12 events and won the Director's Trophy
for Quality at the Michigan Interscholastic Speech League
Title State Championships Feb. 23-24 at Wayne State University.
The victory is the fifth consecutive state title (34th
overall) for the team, which will head to the National
Forensics Association Tournament April 19-23 at Berry College
in Rome. Ga. EMU finished fifth at nationals last year.
"We have a strong, strong team dominated by tournament-savvy
seniors, so our coaching staff expected a substantial margin
of victory. And these kids just wouldn't disappoint us," said
Ray Quiel, who has been involved with EMU forensics since
1973 and is the current director of the team.
Eastern Michigan finished ahead of runner-up Central Michigan
University and Wayne State, which placed third. Hillsdale
College, Northwood University, Ferris State University,
Jackson Community College and Oakland Community College
also competed.
Chris Griesinger led the way for EMU, picking up four
firsts, a third and a fourth-place finish. Griesinger won
the categories of persuasion, after dinner speaking, informative,
and combined for first with Billy Coffing for dramatic
duo. He finished third in prose interpretation,
behind teammates Meghann Janes and Kyle Zrenchik.
Angela Craft, extemporaneous speaking; Vanessa
Boatright, poetry interpretation; Richard Brophy, dramatic
interpretation and original poetry; and Erika Badour, rhetorical
criticism, were EMU's other first-place finishers.
In addition to his runner-up finish in prose interpretation,
Zrenchik took second in three other categories — poetry
interpretation, original poetry, and dramatic duo with
Vanessa Boatright. Other second-place finishes for EMU
include: Badour, after dinner speaking; Adam Rzepka, dramatic
interpretation; Emily Winderman, rhetorical criticism;
Josh Conway, impromptu; and Angela Craft, quadrathon.
Third-place winners were: Winderman, after dinner speaking
and informative; Brophy, rhetorical criticism and quadrathon;
Janes and Rzepka, dramatic duo; and Craft, dramatic interpretation.
"It's exciting because we have 13 seniors and it's
been a goal of ours since we were freshmen to go win a
national title," said Janes, a senior from Centerville,
Ohio.
"I think that winning a national title is a tall order,
but we have so much talent and dedication on our team," said
Brophy, a junior from Warrenton, Great Britain. "We should
be in the thick of it and should have a shot of pulling
an upset,"
Western Kentucky University and Bradley University are
the likely favorites, Brophy said.
Eastern Michigan, Illinois State and Arizona State University
are in the next tier of potential champions, if the forensics
teams were seeded like the NCAA Basketball Tournament,
Quiel said.
