Jackrabbits Forensics claims Tier 2 National Championship

South Dakota State University’s Jackrabbits Forensics team earned the Tier 2 National Championship in the Pi Kappa Delta 2025 National Comprehensive Tournament. 

One of the largest forensics tournaments in the country, the event was held March 13-16 at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Pi Kappa Delta, a national forensics honorary society, classifies team awards into three tiers based on the number of entries from each participating school. 

The team also secured third place in the individual events sweepstakes. Several members advanced to quarterfinals, semifinals and final rounds, and several earned individual awards, including but not limited to: 

Rachael Guler: eighth place in informative speaking, fourth place in persuasive speaking 

Hannah Markley: second place in prose interpretation, sixth place in communication analysis 

Abi Slater: fifth place in Spanish interpretation 

Gavin Eischens: second place in program oral interpretation 

Emma Arneson: ninth-place parliamentary speaker award 

Sydney Morgan: second-place parliamentary speaker award 

Emma Arneson and Abi Slater: JV parliamentary debate champions 

Fifty-four universities participated in the tournament with over 1,900 event entries. 

As South Dakota State University’s nationally recognized speech and debate team, Jackrabbits Forensics equips students with the skills to articulate ideas, challenge perspectives and engage with societal issues — all of which are key to SDSU’s commitment to fostering informed and engaged citizens. 

“The achievements noted above are a testament to the leadership and mentorship provided by Dr. Andrea Carlile, who continues to propel Jackrabbits Forensics to new heights,” said Josh Westwick, director of the School of Communication and Journalism at SDSU. “We can say confidently with great pride that Jackrabbits Forensics is one of the top teams in the country!” 

The Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament was the first of two national tournaments the team will participate in this spring. 

The next competition, the American Forensic Association National Speech Tournament, begins April 4 at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, where 15 Jackrabbits Forensics members will compete. 

The evening before leaving for their last national tournament, team members will host “Forensics Showcase: Night Before Nationals.” The public is invited to the South Dakota Art Museum auditorium on April 1 from 6-8 p.m. to watch a variety of performances from Jackrabbits Forensics team members. 

Now in its 13th year, the event provides an opportunity for students to showcase their favorite pieces from the season and gives the public a chance to witness the team’s competitive performances. 

This season, the forensics team had the largest number of members in 13 years. At 16 members, Jackrabbits Forensics is competitive in size and talent with other universities in the region and nation. 

Of those 16 members, less than half are returning team members. The majority are only in their first year of college forensics. 

“It’s surreal in some ways because I’ve told the team that where we are at this year is the kind of team I envisioned for us when I first started,” said Carlile, director of forensics and assistant professor of communication studies in the School of Communication and Journalism. “And it just takes time, right? My very first year as a coach, I qualified one student in one event to this national tournament. It is never lost on me the trajectory of what we’ve accomplished in 13 years.” 

With a team motto of “Speak your passion,” the team has worked hard to build a sense of resiliency, determination and community, especially coming off of a successful season last year with an international tournament appearance and a first-ever top-20 finish at the American Forensic Association National Speech Tournament. 

Team members continued that success this season, qualifying 28 of 42 events in the fall semester. At the L.E. Norton Memorial Tournament, the group placed 10th overall in team sweepstakes. They have also collected 11 consecutive first-place team finishes in Valley Forensics League tournaments since fall 2022. 

“They’ve got this drive that you can’t necessarily coach,” Carlile said. “They want it, and they are willing to work for it. … Everyone is committed to being their best.” 

“This season, I told them, ‘It doesn’t get any easier, but you just get better,’” Carlile continued. “Prose is still prose, and impromptu is still impromptu. You just find ways to be better at it, and then it feels easier because you've learned how to do it. It's not easy to be a national champion, or to qualify over 40 events to a national tournament. It's not easier, but we found better ways to do it.”