TSU Forensics Team Wins Third Place in State Competition

Members of the TSU Forensics team recently captured third place in the Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics Association’s State Championship. Members include (Left to right, top to bottom) Delvakio Brown, Janet Jordan, Barbra Dudley, Tyler Kinloch, and Michael Thomas.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – The Forensics team at Tennessee State University made the short trip to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to claim the latest in the growing list of top-three finishes when they captured 3rd place recently in the Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics Association’s State Championship.

Held March 31 on the Middle Tennessee State University campus, the five-member team was not only able to take third overall, but also eight individual awards at the state championship.

“We were only able to bring five members of our team to this tournament,” said Shaunté Caraballo, director of Forensics, “and all five members won awards. This shows tremendous growth for our team this year. Every member contributed to our third-place ranking.”

The team captured the following awards:

Michael Thomas, senior Accounting major, won 2rd place in Programmed Oral Interpretation as well as Top Novice in the same event. Thomas also won 3rd place in Persuasive Speaking.

Tyler Kinloch, junior Aeronautical & Industrial Technology major, won 4th place in Prose Interpretation and 4th place in Programmed Oral Interpretation.

Delvakio Brown, sophomore Mass Communications major, won 7th place in Prose Interpretation.

Janet Jordan, freshman Accounting major, won 4th place in Poetry.

Barbra Dudley, freshman, Economics major, won 7th place in Programmed Oral Interpretation.

Currently, some of the members of the TSU Forensics team are in Tempe, Ariz., at the American Forensics Association’s National Individual Events tournament. The event, taking place at Arizona State University, is an intercollegiate, individual event that has significantly more stringent qualification procedures and a smaller, but more exclusive field of competition.

Approximately 1,000 students and coaches will participate in the event. Competition areas include Impromptu speaking, Informative speaking, Prose interpretation, Dramatic Duo, Extemporaneous speaking, Persuasive speaking, Program oral interpretation, After Dinner speaking, Communication analysis, Drama interpretation, and Poetry interpretation.

Senior Michael Thomas will compete in the Persuasive Speaking category, along with sophomore Delvakio Brown, who will compete in the Impromptu Speaking category. Caraballo will also attend as the coach and director of the program.