The UW-Eau Claire forensics team placed 15th in the nation last year at the American Forensic Association National Speech Tournament, having competed in 14 tournaments. 

Over the summer, professor Chris Outzen said he attended the 2025 National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament Expo to recruit new members. 

Fourth-year biology and Latin American studies student and Blugold forensics Vice President Ariel Nelson said the team holds a retreat to work on their speeches and encourages members to practice over the summer before their first tournament. 

The Blugolds had their first competition of the season through the Mid-America Forensics League (MAFL) #1. 

This competition takes place online, so students had to submit videos before Sept. 29 to compete. The competition concluded on Oct. 3. 

Nelson said this format became more common after the COVID-19 pandemic and has since remained in use. She said she has a preference for in-person because they can connect with friends and competitors this way. 

Fourth-year sociology and communication studies student and Blugold Forensics President Austyn Clemen said they have made connections with people such as the Eastern Michigan University Forensics coach through in-person meetings and have even kept in touch with some of their connections through Instagram. 

“Even though I always would prefer going to in-person competitions, I do still enjoy that online competitions are an opportunity because we all have busy lives,” Clemen said. 

The Blugolds ranked fourth in this competition, with a final score of 45. 

Their second competition was the Jackrabbit Joust, where the Blugolds finished in third place with a score of 86.66 according to Speechwire. 

At this competition, Clemen ranked first in both impromptu and persuasive speaking while also achieving second in extemporaneous speaking. 

She said her persuasive speech is about trans people being put in solitary confinement in prison, and she is working on an after-dinner speech about the sleep health of trans people. Clemen said she is also planning to compete in poetry interpretation and more. 

Clemen said she has received a lot of support and put in a lot of hard work to go from competing in one or two categories in high school to seven as of last year. 

Their most recent competition was on Oct. 5 for the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Alumni Tournament, which they took fourth place at with a score of 11.5. 

Nelson ranked first in informative speaking, having also ranked first in the previous competition for informative speaking. Nelson said her speech is about explaining a universal flu vaccine. 

“I talk about the science behind the vaccine, barriers to the vaccine entering the market, drawing implications about public health and the strain on our healthcare system,” Nelson said. 

Nelson is also in the categories for impromptu and persuasive speaking, where she said she talks about violence against certified nursing assistants in nursing homes this year. 

The Blugolds are still early in the season despite having practiced throughout the summer, but they have already shown improvement in two of their tournaments over last year’s scores. 

For example, they scored 73 in Joust and 37 in the MAFL #1 last year. They didn’t compete in the SDSU tournament last year. 

Nelson said she is also feeling good about this season and their three senior members this year. 

“We also have a pretty large group of freshmen, so that should look good for the development of the program in future seasons as well,” Nelson said. 

Nelson said she would like to improve on her delivery for this season and that her goal is to make it to nationals. 

After Clemen graduates, she said she will go on to another college, possibly Eastern Michigan University, for graduate school with plans to coach forensics while there. 

“Forensics is always and has always been a great outlet for people to share about topics that they are very passionate about,” Clemen said. “The personal connection to topics is a very big and important thing, and it’s really nice to have an outlet to do that.”

Curtin can be reached at [email protected].