The UW-Eau Claire forensics team competes at 29 tournaments nationwide from September to April. There are 11 different types of speaking events that students can choose to engage with, such as persuasive, informative, impromptu and poetry.

From Nov. 14-15, four UW-Eau Claire forensics students traveled to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for the Valley Forensic League (VFL) tournaments. Each Blugold secured multiple tournament championships, and the group placed second overall in the team sweepstakes.

Ariel Nelson, a fourth-year biology and Latin American studies student, placed first in communication analysis and second in impromptu speaking for the first tournament. She also placed first in communication analysis and third in impromptu speaking for the second tournament that weekend.

Nelson participated in forensics all four years of high school — initially believing she had joined a crime investigation club — and has been a part of UW-Eau Claire forensics for the past four years as well. She said she values the public speaking, research and advocacy skills she has acquired.

“In collegiate speech, advocacy is a big part of it, because you’re writing speeches and performing literature that’s about issues that you’re advocating for,” Nelson said. “There are a bunch of speeches about advocacy for trans people and for other queer people and for people of color.”

Nelson said her communication analysis topic focused on white supremacist groups in the southern United States and the settler colonialist rhetoric used to justify their power. She described her delivery style as serious and passionate.

“Even though those communities are pretty small, they still represent a broader legitimization of hyper conservative views in the country and how those are gaining more traction,” Nelson said. “And that if we’re going to be advocates, it’s important that we address those at all levels.”

For her impromptu speaking, Nelson said she competed in six rounds total with a different prompt each time. Students are allowed two minutes to prepare and five minutes to speak.

Since Nelson placed highly at the tournaments, she said she has already qualified for nationals and is not required to compete in other tournaments for the time being. However, she will still be working on new pieces and rehearsing with her team, which meets weekly.

“We have a business meeting where we talk about competitive results and upcoming tournaments, and then we have a work night where people are writing speeches, memorizing speeches and also running speeches for each other,” Nelson said. “And that’s been really fun this year.”

Aubrie Voigt is a third-year art and psychology student and a part of UW-Eau Claire forensics. At VFL, she placed third in prose interpretation and fourth in after-dinner speaking for the first tournament. She placed fourth in informative speaking and sixth in prose interpretation for the second tournament.

Voigt said she has been involved in forensics since seventh grade and has been a member of the UW-Eau Claire team since her first year here. She initially joined forensics to get over her fear of public speaking.

“I thought it’d be a good way to get out of my shell, and now I just really enjoy the activity overall,” Voigt said. “I feel like I’ve definitely become more confident in my speaking, and I have also definitely gained abilities in being able to write more argumentatively.”

Voigt said her informative piece, which was a new forensics category for her, was self-written and talked about limb regeneration in axolotls — a species of salamander.

The after-dinner speech she performed was also self-written and focused on the lack of ADHD diagnoses in feminine individuals, according to Voigt. She discussed relative statistics, diagnosing rates and the difference in symptoms presented in masculine individuals that prevent proper diagnoses for feminine individuals.

Voigt said she feels proud of how she placed in the tournament.

“Placing really high personally feels like people are understanding my messages and taking those messages seriously and really shows that I’m getting what I want to say across to others, and it is a really good feeling,” Voigt said.

Voigt said she also wanted to shout out the two first-year students, Marzz Houdyshell and Lottie Wells, who were both recognized as top novices in all of their events throughout the tournament.

Houdyshell placed first in after-dinner speaking and third in drama interpretation for the first tournament. She also placed first in after-dinner speaking and fourth in drama interpretation for the second tournament.

Nelson said she’s encouraged the first-year students to learn by observing the varsity Blugolds.

“We’ve made a big effort to try to get our freshmen involved in running their speeches for us,” Nelson said. “And I think that’s really contributed to a good team dynamic because everyone’s helping each other at run night every week.

Wells placed first in persuasive speaking and first in prose interpretation during the first tournament. She placed second in persuasive speaking and first in prose interpretation for the second tournament.

Voigt said she is excited for the rest of the season.

“I’m really looking forward to just going out to more tournaments and being with my teammates who we are really close with and just all being very prevalent in our advocacy, because these messages are important to us and we want to spread those messages to others,” Voigt said.

Matczak can be reached at [email protected].