The University of Texas at Dallas speech team continues to grow and improve its program, earning second place in a statewide spring tournament.
“We had an exceptional showing at the state tournament — probably one of our best tournaments yet,” said Dr. John Gooch, coach of Comet Speech and Forensics and associate professor of rhetoric in the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology.
At the Texas Intercollegiate Forensic Association (TIFA) state tournament in February, team members also placed second and third in several categories, including national parliamentary debate, international public debate, extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking.
In addition, computer science junior Sneha Elangovan and history and neuroscience senior Arlin Khan were named to the 2022-23 TIFA all-state team.
“To go to the state tournament and to do that well — especially among the larger teams from Texas State University and UT Austin – was tremendous,” said Gooch, who also is the head of communication studies in the Bass School.
Elangovan, Khan, international political economy senior Margaret Belford and information technology and systems senior Alexander de Jesus-Colon qualified to compete at the American Forensic Association’s National Speech Tournament, held in April.
The UTD squad members did not make it to the finals but said that participating in the nationals was valuable.
“It was a great learning experience,” Elangovan said. “Even though we didn’t make it to the semifinals, we took notes and were like, ‘We know what we want to do next year; we’re going to get to where they are.’”
Gooch said he looks forward to recruiting more members for the nearly 5-year-old team and expects to compete well in future tournaments.
“I would love to see us take first-place overall at one of these tournaments,” he said. “I am very excited about what’s going to happen next year. I expect very good things to happen.”
The article above is a truncated version of an article originally appearing on the UT Dallas News Center.