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Bradley University, the two-time defending collegiate national championship team, hosted its annual George Armstrong Heart of Illinois Invitational in Peoria, Illinois last weekend. Twenty-nine extempers showed up to compete in the open division and Lane Hedrick of Rowan County Senior High School (KY) was the winner. Hedrick went straight 1’s in the final round to win the tournament by five ranks over Kerthi Gondi of Parkway West High School (MO). Meghan Weston of Fullerton Joint Union High School (CA) took third, beating out Chloe An of Ladue Horton Watkins High School (MO) by judges preference.
The tournament broke to semi-finals, but due to the size of the field, only the finalists earned a qualifying leg to the 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. Of the finalists, only Hedrick was previously qualified to the TOC, so five extempers earned their first qualifying leg to this year’s tournament. The extempers that earned a qualifying leg are indicated in italics in the results listing.
The tournament also featured a novice division, which featured ten competitors, and was won by Charlie Stark of Downers Grove North High School (IL), who won the final round by five ranks over Bryan Zhang of Parkway West High School. The novice division was not eligible for TOC qualification.
Here are the results of this year’s George Armstrong Heart of Illinois Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Lane Hedrick (Rowan County Senior High School, Kentucky)
2nd: Keerthi Gondi (Parkway West High School, Missouri)
3rd: Meghan Weston (Fullerton Joint Union High School, California)
4th: Chloe An (Ladue Horton Watkins High School, Missouri)
5th: Melissa Hernandez (Fullerton Joint Union High School, California)
6th: Daniel Brophy (Downers Grove North High School, Illinois)
Semi-Finalists
*Alejandro Hernandez (Downers Grove North High School, Illinois)
*Andrew Impastato (Parkway West High School, Missouri)
*Clare Lohrmann (Downers Grove North High School, Illinois)
*Annika Rockhill (Pekin Community High School, Illinois)
*Rasika Sant (Ladue Horton Watkins High School, Missouri)
*Alexander Su (University High School, Illinois)
Novice Division
Champion: Charlie Stark (Downers Grove North High School, Illinois)
2nd: Bryan Zhang (Parkway West High School, Illinois)
3rd: Viraat Goel (University High School, Illinois)
4th: Tommy Green (Glenwood High School, Illinois)
5th: Nirav Patwari (Munster High School, Indiana)
6th: Liza Tarakanova (Parkway West High School, Illinois)
Extemp Central thanks Bradley University for putting the tab sheet of the tournament online.