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Orange Coast College’s Speech, Debate, and Theatre Team won the California Community College Forensics Association’s 2023 State Championship on March 12, 2023. The team won by 70 points over the other 19 competitors from schools across the state. The Pirates scored 232.5 points, followed by Mt. Sac’s 162.5 and Pasadena City College’s 110 points.
“That type of point spread is truly impressive and speaks to the mountain of hard work and practice put in by the team over the past season,” said Director of Forensics Shauhin Davari.
This is the team’s 5th state title in the past six in-person tournaments. Before winning the 2023 State Champions, the team had previously won the honor in 2015-2018.
The team placed well across many events and took gold medals in debate, theater, limited preparation, oral interpretation, and platform speaking.
Campbell Gorlinski and Nina Menzagopian won top speaker awards. Gorlinski ranked as the state’s top debate speaker, competing against over 100 students. Menzagopian won top speaker overall in the state out of over 200 students and took home three gold medals.
The team’s performance was a stunning comeback from not even placing in the top 5 at the regional tournament three weeks ago. The next step is the national championship title with the 2023 Phi Rho Pi Tournament on April 9-15 in Rockville, MD.
