Concordia Speech Team ramps up for Nationals

Ten students from the Concordia University, Nebraska Speech Team have qualified to compete at this year’s American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET), the National Forensic Association National Championship and the National Speech Championship on April 4 – 6.

This last weekend, freshman Nathan Leonard qualified with Impromtu, making it an even 10 students to compete in nationals. Only competitors of the highest caliber are allowed to participate in these tournaments.

“With this qualification, our team officially quadrupled our number of events for the AFA National Tournament compared to last year,” explained Joe Davis, director of forensics at Concordia. “We’ve grown from three students in four events to 10 students in 17 events.”

Individual members are also breaking records such as freshman Philomena Williams, the first Concordia student to qualify for four events at AFA Nationals. Williams qualified for Poetry with three first placings and Program Oral Interpretation in only three tries. She also got second at the State Tournament in Dramatic Interpretation and fourth in Duo Interpretation with her partner, senior Tationa Trice.

Students headed to Nationals include (Listed by state, cityandlast name):

Taryn Thomas, junior, Overland Park, Kans., Informative and Prose

Nathan Leonard, freshman, Topeka, Kan., Impromptu

Philomena Williams, freshman, Independence, Mo., Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation Poetry and Program Oral Interpretation 

Grace Koehn, sophomore, St. Louis, Mo., Program Oral Interpretation

Tationa Trice, senior, St. Louis, Mo., Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation and Prose

Malia Ebel, sophomore, Billings, Mont., Impromptu and Extemporaneous Speaking

Katie Funk, junior, Clearwater, Neb., Prose

Alia Hurst, freshman, Fairmont, Neb., Program Oral Interpretation and Prose

Jacob Garrison, sophomore, Malcolm, Neb., Dramatic Interpretation

Lindsay Range, sophomore, Monroe, Neb., Poetry