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Last weekend saw the kickoff of the 2013-2014 national circuit extemporaneous speaking season in Winston Salem, North Carolina at the Wake Forest National Early Bird Tournament.
Miles Safffran of Trinity Preparatory School (FL) defeated forty-six other extempers from twenty-five schools to claim this year’s title, securing a three rank victory over Josh Wartel of Lake Braddock Secondary School (VA), a finalist at last year’s NFL National Tournament in United States Extemporaneous Speaking. Saffran was last year’s Barkley Forum champion and placed fourth at the Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) Extemp Round Robin. He becomes the first Florida extemper to win Wake Forest since Varun Akula of Lake Highland Preparatory School, who won in 2003. Trinity Preparatory School also placed two finalists, more than any other school. Defending champion Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA) was in the field, but missed the semi-final break.
Since there were more than forty extempers in the field, all extempers who reached elimination rounds have earned a qualifying leg to the 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. However, the 2014 TOC procedures are still being finalized, so that is subject to change. Eight of the extempers that reached eliminated rounds earned a TOC leg. The other six elimination round participants were previously qualified. To check out the current TOC qualifying leaderboard, click here.
The next TOC qualifying tournament is this weekend, when the Yale University Invitational will be held on the Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut.
Here are the results from this year’s Wake Forest National Early Bird Tournament (Those earning a TOC qualifying leg are indicated in italics):
Champion: Miles Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
2nd: Josh Wartel (Lake Braddock Secondary School, Virginia)
3rd: Elizabeth Kingaby (Central Cabarrus High School, North Carolina)
4th: Harrison Stall (Southside High School, South Carolina)
5th: Rahul Nanchahal (Freedom High School, Virginia)
6th: Justin Graham (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
Semi-Finalists
*Brian Anderson (LaRue County High School, Kentucky)
*Varun Bhatia (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Sydney Britton (American Heritage High School, Florida)
*Mark Cohen (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Amil Merchant (Southside High School, South Carolina)
*Nathaniel Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Ben Tobin (Lake Braddock Secondary School, Virginia)
*Andrea Zhang (Ardrey Kell High School, North Carolina)