Contact: Jerry Miller, (740) 593-4831, or Anne McGuinness, (740) 593-0030

ATHENS, Ohio (April 25, 2000) -- Ohio University's Forensics Team took seventh place in the 2000 National Forensics Association Tournament, a competition that drew 89 teams from 35 states to Athens April 13 through 17. The team placed in the top 10 for the second year in a row and the 16th time in the tournament's 30 year history.

Top collegiate speakers competed in a variety of public speaking, debate and oral interpretation events at the tournament. Ohio University placed seventh after a tiebreaker for sixth with Arizona State University. Top honors went to Illinois State, with Bradley University and Miami University placing second and third, respectively.

Individual awards went to Ohio University's Bobby Imbody of LaRue, Ohio, second place in Prose Interpretation; Justin Zabor of Parma, Ohio, fifth place in Informative Speaking; and Erika Mason of Youngstown, Ohio, fifth place in Rhetorical Criticism.

Semifinal placements were won by Erin Gallagher of Cleveland for Persuasive Speaking, Nathaniel Grow of Athens for Extemporaneous Speaking, Betsy McCann of Centerburg, Ohio, for After Dinner Speaking and Zabor for Poetry. Upendri Gunasekera of Athens in Informative Speaking and Betsy McCann in Impromptu Speaking made it to the quarterfinals. Michael Blauvelt of Columbus advanced to the Double Octofinals round in the LincolnDouglas Debate, a persuasive policy debate on traditional stock issues.

The tradition of competitive speech and debate at Ohio University is more than 100 years old. Past participants include Nancy Cartwright (the voice of TV's Bart Simpson), Arsenio Hall and CNN anchor Leon Harris.