UNO Forensics Team Finishes in Top 10 for Fifth Year

Omaha – With one national champion and a fifth-consecutive Top 10 ranking, the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s (UNO) competitive speech team, MavForensics, is celebrating after a successful weekend at the American Forensics Association’s 2014 National Individual Events Tournament last week.

Led by the group’s sixth national champion in five years, QueenTara Pimentel, the small-but-mighty crew of 10 students placed eighth out of 83 programs.

“To have this quality of performance consistently over the last five years, when we have current seniors who weren’t even in the program when we earned our first top 10 finish, is just a huge credit to the quality of students we have at UNO,” said Abbie Syrek, head coach of MavForensics. “We are also consistently the smallest program each year in the Top 10, which is a testament to our students’ talent and dedication.”



Made up of individual competitions across 11 speaking events, each team earns their final placement by virtue of the combined scores of each performance, which provides an inherent advantage to teams like this year’s first-place Western Kentucky, who fielded nearly triple the number of students at 27. 


This year UNO had all three of its seniors advance to finals, including Pimentel, who won her national championship in Poetry Interpretation, as well as Cole Evans and Traelon Graham, who tied for first in Duo Interpretation but lost a tie breaker and ultimately finished second.

Graham and Pimentel also placed in the competition’s individual sweepstakes, which requires a student to compete in four speaking events to be eligible for the 20 awards handed out. Pimentel placed seventh while Graham placed 13th.

The rest of the team, made up of three juniors, one sophomore and three freshmen, made it to several quarterfinal and semifinal events. The final rankings for UNO students in the competition included:

QueenTara Pimentel: First in Poetry; semi-finals in Prose Interpretation and quarter-finals in After-Dinner Speaking

Traelon Graham: First (tie) in Duo Interpretation with Cole Evans; quarter-finals in Poetry Interpretation, quarter-finals in Prose Interpretation and quarter-finals in Informative Speaking

Cole Evans: First (tie) in Duo Interpretation with Traelon Graham, quarter-finals in Informative Speaking

Karlee Currin: Semi-finals in Informative Speaking; quarter-finals in Duo Interpretation (with Abbie Herbert)

Catie Zaleksi: Quarter-finals in Poetry Interpretation

This year’s competition was held Friday, April 4, through Monday, April 7, at Arizona State University. 



The final top 10 standings for this year were:


First – Western Kentucky

Second – Bradley University
Third – University of Texas at Austin

Fourth – Illinois State University

Fifth – George Mason University

Sixth – Gustavus Adolphus College

Seventh – University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Eighth – University of Nebraska at Omaha

Ninth – University of Alabama

10th – University of Northern Iowa 



For more information, please contact Charley Reed, UNO media relations coordinator, at unonews@unomaha.edu or by phone at 402.554.2129.


About the University of Nebraska at Omaha

Located in one of America’s best cities to live, work and learn, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is Nebraska’s premier metropolitan university. With more than 15,000 students enrolled in 200-plus programs of study, UNO is recognized nationally for its online education, graduate education, military friendliness and community engagement efforts. Founded in 1908, UNO has served learners of all backgrounds for more than 100 years and is dedicated to another century of excellence both in the classroom and in the community.

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