[fblike]
Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona hosted its annual Southwest Championship last wekend and the tournament drew twenty-seven extempers from five different states. Keegan Paugh of Stevens High School (SD) was the tournament champion, defeating Breckon Devon Denler of Mountain View High School (AZ) via judges preference. Paugh went 1-1-4 in the final round of the tournament, while Denler posted a 2-3-1 composite and that makes Paugh the first South Dakota extemper to win an Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifying tournament this season.
The tournament broke to semi-finals, but since the tournament lacked forty extempers, only the finalists secured a qualifying leg. No extempers qualified to the TOC from the Southwest Championship, but five extempers did earn their first TOC qualifying leg and are indicated in italics below. Paugh was the only extemper in the final round to earn a TOC qualification, having secured his bid by making elimination rounds in International and United States Extemp at the Florida Blue Key in October.
Here are the results from the 2014 Arizona State University Southwest Championship (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Keegan Paugh (Stevens High School, South Dakota)
2nd: Brecken Devon Denler (Mountain View High School, Arizona)
3rd: Xavier Henes (Brophy College Preparatory, Arizona)
4th: Cameron Connelly (Carlsbad High School, California)
5th: Patrick Johnson (Brophy College Preparatory, Arizona)
6th: Yaseen Hashmi (Carlsbad High School, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Maddie Lee (Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences, Washington)
*Gabriel Leon (Horizon High School, Arizona)
*Natasha Menon (Brophy College Preparatory, Arizona)
*Keziah Robbins (Copper Hills High School, Utah)
*Troy Tauscher (North Pointe Preparatory, Arizona)
*Kevin Tian (Mesquite High School, Arizona)
Extemp Central thanks Arizona State University for putting the tournament results online.