Orange Coast College’s Speech, Debate, and Theatre team won first place in community colleges at the El Camino College Crossman Invitational Forensics tournament on Nov. 4-5 in Torrance, having previously earned state and national titles in Spring 2023. The team put on an impressive display across all three categories of forensics – Debate, Speeches, and the oral interpretation of literature.
The team had three of their five debate teams break out of the preliminary rounds into final rounds of competition, and another just missed out despite having a winning record in preliminaries. Additionally, the team had individuals that genuinely shined in debate, with five members receiving speaker awards, which are given for strength of argumentation while also having great delivery.
OCC has proven to be a well-rounded team, performing well across different types of events. The team performed amazingly in the individual events section, taking home six medals across the 11 individual events.
Lastly, Coast performed so well during the International Public Debate that the tournament could not host a final round. Per tournament rules, teams cannot compete against themselves, and OCC knocked everyone else out of the competition.
“We are thrilled to be back on track early this year and this is a sign that we are heading in the right direction,” said OCC Director of Forensics Shauhin Davari.
The results of the events are as follows:
Debate Events
Kelani Kronberger 7th Place Speaker in Novice Parliamentary Debate
Anastasia Fedorts, 9th Place Speaker in Open Parliamentary Debate
Kate Klein, 8th Place Speaker in Open Parliamentary Debate
Campbell Gorlinski, 3rd Place Speaker in Open Parliamentary Debate
Karina Richardson, 2nd Place Speaker in Open Parliamentary Debate
Individual Events
An Pham 3rd Novice Informative Speaking
Jonathon Lopez 2nd Novice Informative Speaking
Mia Guillen 3rd Prose Interpretation
Charles Dehrlin 1st Dramatic Interpretation
David Ekelem 3rd Programed Oral Interpretation
Charlie Spencer 1st Programmed Oral Interpretation
International Public Debate Events
Kate Klein Bronze IPDA
Campbell Gorlinski Gold IPDA
Karina Richardson Gold IPDA
Gohan Huynh Gold IPDA
Mia Rinaldi Gold IPDA
Orange Coast College left an undeniable mark on the competition, earning more points than any other community college.