IOA
The Interstate Oratorical Association national oratory contest is the oldest continuously running national speech tournament in the United States. Only the top two persuasive speakers from each state are eligible for the contest, and speeches are published each year in a volume titled Winning Orations. In Texas, the speakers qualify for selection at the Spring overall state contest administered by the Texas Intercollegiate Forensic Association (TIFA). The 1992 contest was hosted by the University of Texas at Austin and was organized primarily by Tracy Anderson-Wayson. The 2023 contest also was hosted at the University of Texas at Austin.Jason Meeker, 1990
Randy Cox, 1991 (3rd place)
Dhaval Patel, 1994 (unable to attend)
Jitin Hingorani, 1996
Jimmy Ficaro, 2001
Candice Cuvelier, 2004 (semi-finalist)
Sean Stewart, 2004
Jillian Collum, 2005
Tapashya Ghosh, 2006
Andrew Farmer, 2006
Jillian Collum, 2007 (semi-finalist)
Merry Regan, 2008 (5th place)
Nicole Kreisberg, 2009 (semi-finalist)
Nathan Rarick, 2010 (semi-finalist)
Kyle Akerman, 2011
Nathan Rarick, 2012 (6th place)
Melanie Price, 2013 (semi-finalist)
Ashley Kohbrand, 2013 (semi-finalist)
Farrah Bara, 2014 (6th place)
John Groves, 2014 (3rd place)
Thomas Hill, 2015
Blake Bergeron, 2016
Kevin King, 2016 (5th place)
Alishan Alibhai, 2017 (semi-finalist)
Cimmi Alvarez, 2018 (5th place)
Arel Rende, 2018 (3rd place)
Sabrina Batten Savoie, 2019
Juan Alfonso Nunez Rodriguez, 2020 (cancelled due to covid)
David Rodriguez, 2020 (cancelled due to covid)
Evan Ortiz, 2021 (4th place)
Jackson Reich, 2022 (4th place)
Evan Ortiz, 2022 (2nd place)
Hiba Faruqi, 2023 (3rd place)
David Cervantes, 2023 (2nd place)