DeKALB | The NIU Forensics Team placed third in the Illinois Intercollegiate Forensic Association’s state tournament last weekend.

“I think this is the best the team has done in probably 10 years,” said NIU Forensics coach Judy Santacaterina.

The team competed against other Illinois schools, including Illinois State University, Bradley University, Northwestern University and Eastern Illinois University.

Bradley and Illinois State took first and second place respectively.

“I think we have a really competitive program right now, and this can be seen by the individual performances as well as the team’s overall performance in the tournament,” said NIU Forensics Director Kerith Woodyard.

The tournament consisted of two-person team debates as well as individual speech events, Woodyard said.

“The individual events break down into three basic categories, which include oral interpretation events, prepared public address events and limited preparation events,” Woodyard said.

The team has 22 active members led by Jason Kauffman and Chris Michels, who where able to advance to the semifinals in the two-person debate event.

“I believe we have a good mix of novice and experienced team members to compete at a high level for years to come,” Woodyard said. “The team performed exceptionally well and made NIU as well as the state proud.”

Though the term “forensics” is sometimes paired with TV shows like “Law and Order” and “CSI” today, that is not the original denotation of the word.

“If you look at the history of the word ‘forensics,’ it started back in Greece,” Santacaterina said. “Debating societies were called forensic societies…they dealt with legal aspects with the Greeks. A lot of times when you talk about forensic science, you’re talking about the legal aspect.”

Editor’s note: Managing Editor Matt Liparota contributed to this article.