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George Mason �鶹����’s recently added another prestigious honor to its long list of successes: national runner-up at the 43rd American Forensic Association National Speech Tournament (AFA-NST).

“It was the most gratifying experience I’ve had in my whole speech career,” said Prem Ganesan, a freshman major at Mason who participated in five tournament events.

From April 2-4, 14 students from �Ѳ����Dz�’s Forensics Team competed at the �鶹���� of Nebraska-Lincoln in the AFA-NST, which brings students together from across the nation to compete for national championships.

Mason's team, which won the 1979 national championship, has been ranked in the top five nationally every year since 2007, and in the top 35 nationally since 1975.

Ganesan said the team worried it wouldn’t hold its top-five ranking with a smaller competing squad of 14 students compared with up to 25 members in previous years.

Dawn Lowry, �Ѳ����Dz�’s director of forensics, said that with the pandemic, “It has been a tough two years on everybody, and to have something that we could all work on together means a lot.”

The 11 competitive events are categorized in three genres: prepared public speaking (informative speaking, persuasion, communication analysis, and after dinner speaking), limited preparation public speaking (extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking), and oral interpretation performance events (prose, poetry, dramatic interpretation, program of oral interpretation, and DUO, which is the only interpretation event requiring two performers).

Several students received individual honors, including José Quinones, 20th place; Izzie Larson, 18th place; and Eleni Mercer, 11th place.

Mercer, a sophomore major, and Larson, a senior major, were also named national champions in the DUO event. Their piece, they said, is about how health care providers are not equipped to care for transgender bodies, and how modern medicine ignores and mistreats transgender people.

“We care so deeply about our topic, so creating something we were passionate about came really easily,” Larson said. “Going into nationals, we were already so proud and excited about what we had created that the win was just the cherry on top.”

The coaches, Lowry said, “have really tried to create an environment where students can talk about issues that have a profound effect on them.”

Ganesan used his program of oral interpretation event, in which he placed fourth, to speak on how British colonialism in India has impacted the Hindu faith in promoting homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and colorism.

The students began preparing in August and have been competing mostly online since October.

The team is coached by Lowry and Tyler Watkins, the assistant director of forensics, as well as graduate students Brenna Fuhr () and Peter Figueroa (), and alumni Kate Polit ( ’12; ’14) and Lucas Muratore ( ’18).

“Every single person on this team has an incredible story, message, and personality behind them. I always feel like I’m winning when I’m with them,” Mercer said. “Getting second place overall for the first time in over 10 years just validated that experience for us.”

Next on their schedule is the National Forensics Association's National Tournament for both speech and debate from April 14-18 at Illinois State �鶹����.

To see a list of all Mason results, .

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