Sources: Craig Brown, 785-532-6790, craigb@k-state.edu;
and Bobby Imbody, 785-532-6875, bobby@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Megan Wilson, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
K-STATE FORENSICS TEAM PLACES IN TOP 20 AT NATIONAL TOURNAMENT FOR 18TH STRAIGHT YEAR
MANHATTAN -- With a 17th-place finish in the American Forensics Association-National Individual Events Tournament in Akron, Ohio, the Kansas State University forensics team finished in the top 20 for the 18th consecutive year.
K-State had one competitor advance to the semifinals and place in the top 12 at the national tournament. Two other competitors advanced to the quarterfinals and were among the top 24 finishers.
James Stanfill, senior in communication studies, secondary education and English, Topeka, advanced to the semifinals in prose interpretation, and to the quarterfinals in the extemporaneous category. The pair of Brett Culbert, senior in theater, Lansing, and Jessica Thompson, junior in sociology, Kansas City, Mo., advanced to the quarterfinals in duo interpretation. Culbert also advanced to the quarterfinals in dramatic interpretation.
The forensics team, K-State Speech Unlimited, has around 20 members and five coaches. Since 1992, the K-State team has been a fixture among the top 20 teams in the country, including a fourth-place finish in 2008. K-State Speech Unlimited is one of only two teams in the nation to have both a Distinguished Service Award winner, Craig Brown in 2003, and an American Forensics Association-National Individual Events Tournament Outstanding New Forensics Coach, Bobby Imbody in 2005, on its coaching staff.
Along with Stanfill, Culbert and Thompson, K-State students who qualified for nationals included:
Grady Bolding, senior in theater, Great Bend; Bryan Dickerson, senior in social sciences, Hutchinson; Clare Feeley, senior in communication studies, Leawood; Sam Neal, senior in secondary education-social studies, Linwood; Jesse Marden, sophomore in communication studies and political science, Manhattan; Frankie Suther, sophomore in elementary education, Onaga; Robyn Hilt, freshman, communication studies and anthropology, Pittsburg; Natalie Vanatta, senior in pre-professional secondary education, Prairie Village; and Alex Dryden, senior in theater, and Chandler Johnson, sophomore in pre-professional journalism and mass communications, both from Wichita.
From out of state: Cameron Piercy, sophomore in communication studies and political science, Comanche, Okla.
