UK Forensics Hosts Pi Kappa Delta Nationals and Places 10th
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 4, 2016) – The University of Kentucky Forensics Team successfully hosted the Pi Kappa Delta National Comprehensive Tournament on the UK campus during this year’s spring break. Over 900 coaches, students and judges representing 86 schools from 28 states participated in the tournament.
UK was selected to host this prestigious event in early 2015 and has spent the past year preparing for the five-day competition. As the local host, the team was responsible for organizing all of the on campus logistics of the tournament including reserving all of the competition spaces, printing more than 14,000 ballots and other materials, recruiting the community judges, securing hotel rooms for the visiting teams, and a myriad of other important tournament tasks.
UK Forensics also competed in the tournament placing 10th overall for the second year in a row. The overall sweepstakes competition combines teams' scores in the speaking events and debate which requires that teams be truly comprehensive in their approach to forensics. The team placed seventh in the debate only sweepstakes competition.
Director of Forensics Timothy Bill stated about these results that he “could not be prouder of the team’s accomplishments this year. They have spent the past few months working double duty preparing to host the tournament and perfecting their own speeches. Their success is a testament to their drive, talent and passion for this activity. They represent the best of what it means to be a Wildcat.”
Senior Logan Hurley became the first competitor in the team’s history to reach a final round at a national tournament by placing sixth in extemporaneous speaking. Hurley, who only began competing regularly in extemporaneous speaking a year before, has spent the past few months perfecting his approach to the event and refining his presentation techniques.
“Logan has worked really hard for this all year,” Director Bill said. “It’s been an incredible privilege to see him grow so much as a speaker.”
Hurley started competing with the team in the fall of 2012 with no previous public speaking or debate experience. In that span, he has earned numerous national and regional awards in all four competition genres including two other quarterfinalist placings from this year’s tournament.
Team members from UK earned the following awards at the 2016 Pi Kappa Delta national comprehensive tournament:
After Dinner Speaking
Excellent – Abel Rodriguez III
Editorial Impromptu Speaking
Quarterfinalist – Logan Hurley
Quarterfinalist – Matt Karijolic
Excellent – Rachel Brase
Excellent – Talha Muhammad
Extemporaneous Speaking
6th Place – Logan Hurley
Quarterfinalist – Abel Rodriguez III
Impromptu Speaking
Quarterfinalist – Logan Hurley
Quarterfinalist – Veronica Scott
Excellent – Rachel Brase
Excellent – Megan Wagner
Parliamentary Debate
Quarterfinalist (Junior-Varsity Division) – Talha Muhammad and Sam Northrup
Quarterfinalist (Junior-Varsity Division) – Rachel Brase and Kaylon Kennedy
Quarterfinalist (Novice Division) – Matt Karijolic and Veronica Scott
5th Place Speaker (Novice Division) – Veronica Scott
Persuasive Speaking
Quarterfinalist – Abel Rodriguez III
Poetry Interpretation
Quarterfinalist – Abel Rodriguez III
Program Oral Interpretation
Excellent – Kaylon Kennedy
Public Debate
Octafinalist (Novice Division) - Dianté Elcock
Octafinalist (Open Division) – Logan Hurley Octafinalist (Open Division) – Abel Rodriguez III
Eighth Place Speaker (Open Division) – Abel Rodriguez III
The University of Kentucky Forensic Team’s next competition will be the National Forensic Association's national tournament, held at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, from April 14-18. To participate in this tournament, students had to qualify each of the speeches by placing in a final round of a regular season tournament.
Anyone with questions about this event or UK Forensics in general are encouraged to contact Director of Forensics Timothy Bill at timothy.bill@uky.edu. UK Forensics is a student organization in the School of Information Science in the College of Communication and Information. The team regularly competes in 12 public speaking events and three forms of debate. To find out more, please visit https://ci.uky.edu/sis/ukforensics.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, 859-323-2396, whitney.harder@uky.edu