Belmont University’s Speech and Debate team is accustomed to winning, but this week the 2012 Tennessee state champions took their success to a new level by turning the heads of national competitors.
Founded more than a decade ago, the team earned 13th place in the nation at the American Forensics Association NIET Tournament at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Belmont competed with only four students against a field of 83 teams, besting such impressive, larger schools as James Madison University, Northwestern, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin – one of the founders of the American Forensics Association.
In addition to the team achievement, Senior Communication Studies Major Eric Schoen earned third place out of 148 competitors in Prose Interpretation – the first time in Belmont forensics history a student has placed this high in the national competition.