Illinois State Junior Faith Hincapie (Northbrook) took first in after dinner speaking at the 75th Annual LE Norton Memorial Tournament over November 5th-6th hosted by Bradley University in Peoria. Additionally, the team took second overall in team sweepstakes in the asynchronous Harvest Festival on November 4th hosted asynchronously by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
At the Norton Memorial:
- Senior Sarah Keller (Geneva) earned second in Persuasive.
- Freshman Braden Wall (Cary) earned fourth in novice Informative, fifth in novice Impromptu, and sixth in novice Extemporaneous.
At the Harvest Festival:
- Sophomore Henry Davenport (Elk Grove Village) earned second in Communication Analysis, second in Extemporaneous, and fourth in Persuasive.
- Keller earned second in After Dinner Speaking.
- Wall earned third in Extemporaneous and sixth in Informative.
- Sophomore Jedge Slothower (Ottawa) earned third in Informative.
- Senior Doniven Hill-Bush (Peoria) earned fifth in Impromptu.
Commonly called “the fall nationals,” the Norton Memorial Tournament is one of the biggest competitions of the year for the team. It’s a chance to gauge competition from a wider range of schools and see what events they might be up against at nationals in April.
“Spending time with the team was so much fun. I got to laugh with them and I got to cheer them on as they went to their rounds.”
Michelle Ryan
With so many schools competing, the team was able to reunite with old friends and make new connections during the tournament.
“I was able to see so many friends at this tournament. Specifically teams from Lewis and Clark College and Eastern Michigan University are always such a joy to see at tournaments,” said Keller.
“I was able to make friends with a lot of the limited preppers from a lot of schools, like Northwestern, George Mason, and Eastern Michigan,” said Wall.
For the seniors on the team, this was their last year competing at the milestone tournament.
“The Norton was definitely the first tournament it really sunk in for me that this is my last year competing,” said Keller, “It was a very full circle moment for me to get to come to this tournament as a senior with four events when as a freshman I was there as a spectator.”
The team traveled to Peoria in one of the team vans.
“Traveling was actually really relaxing. It’s a short drive so it was nice to have that time to get in the competition headspace,” said senior Sarah Sanders (Marion).
Team members enjoyed watching one another’s performances and encouraging each other as the competition progressed.
“Spending time with the team was so much fun. I got to laugh with them and I got to cheer them on as they went to their rounds,” said sophomore Michelle Ryan (Chicago Heights).
For the asynchronous tournament, team members had the ability to compete from anywhere they chose, provided they could find somewhere to set up their camera without a distracting background.
“I competed from room 039 in Fell,” said Wall, “The recording process was relatively smooth. The good of competing asynchronously is that it can be done at any time, but the downside is I very much enjoy competing with an audience, and it can be hard to not have that audience.”
The team is looking ahead to the American Forensics Association – National Speech Tournament District 5 Fall Qualifier Tournament on November 12th over Zoom.
“I’m looking forward to AFA districts this weekend and getting to refine a few of my pieces that I took out to the Norton,” said Ryan.
The ISU Forensics Union, the oldest and most successful registered student organization on campus, boasts over 80 individual national champions and 10 team national championships. The team competes at tournaments in Lincoln-Douglas debate, public speaking, and oral interpretation events.