UK Forensics Victorious at Berea College Tournament

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 18, 2016) — For the third time in a row, the University of Kentucky Forensics Team won the title of Grand Champion at the John G. Fee Memorial Speech and Debate Tournament hosted by Berea College.

The tournament, which featured competition in 13 public speaking events and two forms of debate, was attended by 21 schools from as far away as Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. To earn the title of Grand Champion, a school needed to participate in both public speaking events and debate, and earn more points than any other school from the competition.

In the public speaking events, UK Forensics earned first place as a team in the large school division of individual events competition. At this tournament, schools are divided into divisions based on the size of the student body. This first place finish included three individual event champions: junior Kaylon Kennedy and sophomore Matt Karijolic in duo interpretation, junior Megan Wagner in impromptu counseling, and freshman Laura McAllister in poetry interpretation. Including these first place finishes, the team earned another 13 qualifications to the National Forensic Association national tournament. UK also placed third in the large school division of debate sweepstakes.

In addition to the team sweepstakes successes, competitors could earn individual sweepstakes awards in what is known as the pentathlon competition. To be eligible, a student had to enter a minimum of five public speaking events. The top six competitors with the most points from all of their events combined were recognized at the awards ceremony. Students from UK earned three of these six awards. Junior Kaylon Kennedy place third, sophomore Veronica Scott placed fourth, and sophomore Matt Karijolic placed fifth. This showing is UK’s strongest ever performance in the pentathlon competition.

Students from UK achieved the following successes at the tournament:

Team

Grand Champions – Combined Sweepstakes

1st Place – Large School Individual Events Sweepstakes

3rd Place – Large School Debate Sweepstakes

Pentathlon

3rd Place – Kaylon Kennedy

4th Place – Veronica Scott

5th Place – Matt Karijolic

After Dinner Speaking

2nd Place – Matt Karijolic

5th Place – Sam Northrup

Communication Analysis

2nd Place – Matt Karijolic

3rd Place – Rachel Brase

Drama Interpretation

5th Place – Veronica Scott

Duo Interpretation

1st Place – Kaylon Kennedy and Matt Karijolic

2nd Place – Kaylon Kennedy and Rachel Brase

Extemporaneous Speaking

2nd Place – Matt Karijolic

3rd Place – Kaylon Kennedy

6th Place – Will Brennan

Impromptu Counseling

1st Place – Megan Wagner

6th Place – Rachel Brase

Impromptu Speaking

3rd Place – Veronica Scott

Semifinalist – Rachel Brase

Informative Speaking

3rd Place – Sam Northrup

Persuasive Speaking

5th Place – Veronica Scott

6th Place – Josh Finley

Top Novice – Josh Finley

Poetry Interpretation

1st Place – Laura McAllister

2nd Place – Kaylon Kennedy

Top Novice – Laura McAllister

Program Oral Interpretation

2nd Place – Kaylon Kennedy

4th Place – Laura McAllister

Prose Interpretation

5th Place – Megan Wagner

Public Debate

Quarterfinalist – Megan Wagner

5th Place Speaker – Megan Wagner

Radio Broadcasting

3rd Place – Veronica Scott

The University of Kentucky Forensics Team’s next competition will be the Chief Justice Invitational speech and debate tournament held at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, on Oct. 29-30. 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 www.ukforensics.com.   

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, visit uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, 859-323-2396, whitney.harder@uky.edu