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Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu

Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

Source: Craig Brown, 785-532-6790, craigb@k-state.edu
Pronouncer: Ohl rhymes with roll
News release prepared by: Cheryl May, 785-532-6415, may@k-state.edu

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

OHL WINS SIXTH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR; LEADS K-STATE FORENSICS TEAM TO FIFTH PLACE NATIONAL FINISH

MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University's Jessy Ohl senior in political science from Denison, Iowa, continued his winning ways by capturing the National Forensic Association national individual sweepstakes championship April 18-21 at Tennessee State University in Nashville. 

This school year  Ohl has won six titles at national forensics competitions, giving him seven national titles during his junior and senior years at K-State.

K-State President Jon Wefald said, "Academics are priority No. 1 through five at K-State. We have a commitment to excellence, which Jessy Ohl and the forensics team have embraced. If somebody had a football season like Jessy just had in forensics, he would be a unanimous Heisman Award winner. Jessy is definitely an academic champion of the first magnitude."

Captain of K-State's forensics team, Ohl has had an amazing collegiate career, according to Craig Brown, K-State's director of forensics.

"This past weekend, Jessy won the national individual sweepstakes championship running away from the rest of the field," Brown said. "This easily marks the most impressive year in the history of our program and we've had some pretty impressive years before," Brown said. "And the 'nationals season' of Jessy Ohl is the stuff of myth and legend."

K-State's forensics team placed fifth in the nation among 90 schools, competing with just five students. The team also placed first in the nation in the President's II Division, a sweepstakes division for schools with smaller entries, Brown said. An average 200 students competed in each event.

"To get to just quarterfinals -- the top 24 -- our students had to beat out 176 people," he said.

Ohl was in six finals and won three of them: first in informative speaking, persuasive speaking and rhetorical criticism; fourth in impromptu and after dinner speaking; and sixth in extemporaneous speaking.

Other team members who competed for the fifth place national finish at Nashville include Zac Ralston, senior in speech, Great Bend, quarter-finalist in poetry interpretation and semi-finalist in informative speaking; Cory Sears, senior in speech, Shawnee, quarter-finalist in dramatic interpretation; Kevin Phillips, senior in speech, Spring Hill; and Alex Serra, senior in kinesiology, Joshua, Texas, quarter-finalist in after dinner speaking and semi-finalist in extemporaneous speaking.

"The team and coaching staff work hard, but without the support and commitment from President Jon Wefald, Dean Steve White and Charlie Griffin, head of the speech department, K-State forensics and debate would be just OK -- and just OK is not what any of us are about," Brown said.

Bobby Imbody, assistant director of individual events, accompanied the team to Tennessee. Additional coaches include Kevin Keatley, Bazine; Neal Stewart, Paola; Sarah Schwartz, Atwater, Minn.; and Emily Kofoed, Mapleton, Minn. All are graduate students in speech.