On Feb. 8, 2025, the Groves forensics team took home an impressive award: the sweepstake award— for taking home the most overall points. In other words, they won first place.
Placing higher than Green Hills, who placed second despite having more competitors, was also a point of pride for the team. Groves does not usually take first because they have smaller numbers than other teams. (In forensics, the more competitors a team has the more points they receive.)
Throughout the day, participants compete in three preliminary rounds. If they score high enough, they move on to semi-finals then finals. Groves came in with 34 individual event competitors, 26 of whom advanced to semifinals with 17 of them advancing to finals.
Among those included freshman and sophomore duo competitors Mina Melamed and Cordelia Thomas. Head coach of the forensics team, John Rutherford, talks about Melamed and Thomas’s impressive first-place win.
“They’ve never competed before; complete novices. They didn’t even know what Forensic is. It was very exciting and they got very high scores,” Rutherford said.
Quentin Perrie, a sophomore in the Poetry 9/10 category, also took first place. “Our most promising was the ninth and tenth-grade poetry; we took first and second,” Rutherford said.
These remarkable wins didn’t come without some elbow grease. The team started their intense preparation only a month ago. “I made up what I call ‘January Intensive.’ It’s two days where you already have your performance prepared, and we run through a mock competition,” Rutherford said. This feedback comes from the captains and coaches as they give them their mock scores. This is crucial to the teams’ improvement and getting more comfortable with their pieces.
Although delighted by the team’s win, Rutherford warns his team of what happens when riding the coattails of success. “The duo that came in first might slip for the next tournament because they’re not as hungry for it,” Rutherford said. But that’s not only the reason a competitor could slip. “In basketball, you get a basket; it’s either in or out. In forensic it’s not in or out. It just happens to be this judge, on this day at this moment.” With this unpredictability, Rutherford advises his team to always be fiercely competitive.
The team’s victory is a testament to their hard work and dedication. But as Rutherford says, current wins do not guarantee future wins. With their determination and hunger to win, Groves Forensic will continue to be successful.
