February 26, 2021
Tallahassee Community College’s Speech and Debate Team won the Overall Team Sweepstakes award at the Florida Intercollegiate Forensic Association (FIFA) 2021 State Championship. By doing so, they bested all of the major university programs in the state including: University of Central Florida, University of Florida, Florida State University, University of South Florida and the University of West Florida.
TCC last won the title in 2017.
The 13-member team accumulated an unprecedented 31 finalists across the 11 individual events. Notable finishes included:
Faith MacGregor: Champion Overall Individual Speaker; Champion in Dramatic Interpretation, Prose Interpretation, and Program Oral Interpretation.
Zira Brown: 2nd Place Overall Individual Speaker; 2nd Place After Dinner Speaking; 3rd Place Dramatic Interpretation; 4th Place Poetry Interpretation.
Grace Chapman: 3rd Place Overall Individual Speaker; 2nd Place Duo Interpretation; 3rd Place Persuasive Speaking, Prose Interpretation, and After Dinner Speaking.
Ryan Moore: 6th Place Overall Individual Speaker: 4th Place in Communication Analysis, Informative Speaking, and Dramatic Interpretation.
Zachary Boltz and Madison Reed: Champions in Duo Interpretation; Boltz also placed 2nd in Prose Interpretation and Reed placed 2nd in Poetry Interpretation.
Patrick Sternad: 2nd Place Duo Interpretation.
Other notable award-winners for the College include: Liliana Vergen (3rd Duo Interpretation, 4th Program Oral Interpretation, 5th Communication Analysis), Allison Grove (5th Extemporaneous Speaking, 6th Impromptu Speaking and Informative Speaking), Kate Spellacy (7th Place Program Oral Interpretation), and Alexander McBride (5th Place International Public Debate Association Debate Speaker).
Dominick Bianchi and Noah Snider also competed and added points to the team’s overall total.
This victory marks the 10th time TCC has captured the FIFA state title over the past four decades. No other college or university has achieved that history of excellence.