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Forensics Wins State Title

Full group photo with medals

March 21, 2019 - 04:36 PM

The Mt. SAC Forensics team captured the prestigious California Community College Forensics Association State Championship this past week.  This is the first state title in over 20 years for Mt. SAC.  The team earned 186.25 total points, closely edging out Moorpark and Diablo Valley colleges.  The team won 26 total awards in all event genres, including 8 gold medals, 5 silver medals, and 13 bronze medals.

Numerous students, including Mikayla Holzinger (Prose Interpretation), Grace Kim (Communication Analysis), Edwin Ramirez( Persuasion), Caitlyn Carr (Extemporaneous), and Mohamad Almouazzen (Extemporaneous), were crowned state champions in their events, earning the best scores in the tournament. Caitlyn and Mohamad had a tie score in Extemporaneous Speaking and were crowned co-state champs.

Of special note, Grace earned a “picket fence” in Communication Analysis - earning first place ranks from all six of her judges.  This is one of the rarest honors a student can achieve in forensics.  Edwin earned awards in all three of his events, including a gold medal in persuasive speaking and two bronze awards in Informative Speaking and Speech to Entertain. Edwin also recently qualified to represent Southern California at the upcoming Interstate Oratory speech contest to be held in Philadelphia in April. Edwin is only the second Mt. SAC student to qualify in the tournament’s 150-year history.

Other notable results include a gold medal for Cindy Gutierrez in individual debate and a gold medal for Eisa Razzak and Mohamad in team parliamentary debate.  Cindy was also recognized as the 10th best speaker in debate. The team won an impressive four awards in informative speaking, including a silver for Shanae Wong, silver for Janay Bombino, and bronze awards for Cindy and Edwin.

Coach Thuy Pham shares that “we could not have done it without the incredible institutional support from our college. The State Championship tournament is the best way to get students ready for our national tournament. The students spent countless days preparing for State, and bringing home first place makes us confident that we can win Nationals!”

The team looks to build on the success of the state championship when they head to the Phi Rho Pi Nationals Championship next month in Reno, Nevada. The team is coached by Communication Professors Roger Willis-Raymondo, Thuy Pham, and Jasmine McLeod.

 Team showing off medals