by Serine Warner, Student Public Relations Writer
Saving its best performance for the National Christian College Forensic Association’s national tournament secured a national championship for Cedarville University. The Cedarville forensics team garnered 45% of the available points to easily outdistance the competition claiming its national title.
The tournament held March 7-9, at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, saw Cedarville’s team win the top spot in in the speech division and second place in the debate division.
The team also took home the prestigious Quality Award, given to the team that earns the highest percentage of points relative to the number of entries.
“It was by far Cedarville’s best showing at any tournament since I became coach in 2019,” said Eric Mishne, assistant professor of communication and director of forensics.
Cedarville students earned 13 individual first places during the competition, with several other top three finishes across multiple events.
Zane Enos, a freshman economics major from Colorado Springs, Colorado, won novice impromptu speaking. Laura Ball, a freshman special education major from Salado, Texas, was a finalist in junior varsity debate and won four speech championships, including after dinner speaking, rhetorical criticism and extemporaneous speaking. Joshua Parker, freshmen communication major from Gilbert, Arizona, received the novice championship in homiletics, and Kayla Sheaffer, a freshman global business major from Tucson, Arizona, placed first in novice informative speaking.
In the varsity division, Spicer Wadman, a junior physics major from Hillsboro, Virginia, claimed two national championships in dramatic interpretation and interpretation of faith literature. Amelia Elkins, a senior political science major from Fort Wright, Kentucky, took first place in prose interpretation and earned the tournament’s individual sweepstakes championship, awarded to the competitor with the highest total speaker points.
The team also won the championship in readers theatre, with contributions from Noah Hollenbach, a junior political science major from Moseley, Virginia; Deidra Hall, a junior psychology major from Pawcatuck, Connecticut; Joshua Parker; Zane Enos and Kayla Shaefer.
This successful spring season capped off the year with both state and national championships. Beyond the titles, the team takes pride in representing Cedarville through excellence in effort and Christian sportsmanship.
“I am so proud of the team, and we really represented Cedarville well,” said Mishne. “Winning state and nationals in the same year is a huge accomplishment.”
Cedarville University , an evangelical Christian institution in southwest Ohio, offers undergraduate and graduate programs across arts, sciences, and professional fields. With 6,384 students, it ranks among Ohio's largest private universities and is recognized by the Wall Street Journal as being among the nation’s top three evangelical universities. Cedarville is also known for its vibrant Christian community, challenging academics, and high graduation and retention rates. Learn more at cedarville.edu.