COD Forensics Team Earns Third Place at State Tournament

After placing second at Harper Community College Litrenta Triangle Invitational in February and coming home with six individual Gold medals, the College of DuPage Forensics team continued its success at the 2015 Illinois Intercollegiate Forensics Association State Tournament, hosted by Northern Illinois University.

The tournament brings together competitors from community colleges as well as four-year universities across Illinois. There are two sets of finals: a community college (CC) final for students at the two-year college level, and an open final for four-year university competitors, as well as community college students who qualify in preliminary rounds. Overall, the COD Forensics team took third place in the Community College Team Sweeps at IIFA State.

The following team members placed in final rounds:

Brigette Mora (Woodridge): Fifth place in Impromptu Speaking (CC); Sixth place in Extemporaneous Speaking (CC)

Daniela Garcia (West Chicago): Second place in Reader's Theater (with partners Marco Garcia and Daisy Esquivel)

Daisy Esquivel (Lombard): Second place in Reader's Theater (with partners Marco Garcia and Daniela Garcia)

Julia Fermier (Naperville): Fourth place in Impromptu Speaking (CC); Fifth place in Speech to Entertain (CC)

Mahera Suhail (Woodridge): Third place in Prose Interpretation (CC)

Marco Garcia (West Chicago): Second place in Reader's Theater (with partners Daniela Garcia and Daisy Esquivel)

Rocky Roque (Bensenville): Fifth place in Dramatic Interpretation (CC)

Shannon Linares (Downers Grove): Second place in Persuasive Speaking (CC); Fourth place in Communication Analysis (CC)

Thea Klinker (Downers Grove): Sixth place in Communication Analysis (Open); Fourth place in Persuasive Speaking (CC)

Zoya Khan (Aurora): Second place in Speech to Entertain (CC)

The team was accompanied to the state tournament by coach and full-time Speech Communication faculty member Jude Geiger as well as Lauren Morgan, who is also a full-time Speech Communication faculty member and the program's Director of Forensics.

Other coaches include full-time faculty member Mia Poston, part-time faculty member Melissa Gomez and alumni Matt Beifuss.

The 2014-2015 COD Forensics team will complete its season at the Phi Rho Pi National Tournament April 6 to 10 in Cleveland, Ohio.

For more information on the Forensics team, please contact Lauren Morgan at Morgan at morgan@cod.edu.