On Saturday, February 5, the SUNY Oneonta poetry slam team won the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) regional poetry slam championship held at SUNY New Paltz. Oneonta bested the host team and SUNY Geneseo en route to edging Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut by a seven-point margin. The final scores after two rounds were:
- SUNY Oneonta, 214.9
- Wesleyan University, 207.9
- SUNY Geneseo, 205.0
- SUNY New Paltz, 199.2
The team is coached by Dr. Richie Lee of the SUNY Oneonta English Department and includes Kristen Tomanocy, Mary Anne Rojas, Anny Miner, Vanessa Perillo, Jessica Bailey and 2010 Grand Slam Champion Mary Taibi. Two of the team’s spoken word pieces—one of which was a four-voiced piece entitled “Short Apology”—earned perfect scores of 30.0. With this win, the team will advance to the National Collegiate Poetry Slam on April 6-9, sponsored by the ACUI and held at the University of Michigan.