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While most of the extemp world was focused on the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin last week, Myers Park High School in Charlotte, North Carolina played host to forty-two extempers and the weekend’s only Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifying tournament. Nida Ansari of Riverside High School (SC) was the tournament champion, posting a cumulative elimination rank total of fifteen and defeating Mark Cohen of Durham Academy (NC) by four ranks. Durham Academy had two finalists and six elimination round participants, which was more than any other school in attendance.
Since the tournament had more than forty participants, all of the students who reached the tournament’s semi-final round earned a qualifying leg to this year’s TOC. Three extempers earned qualifying legs and John Fitzgerald of the Delbarton School (NJ) earned his second qualifying leg to become the 195th qualifier to this year’s TOC. All extempers that earned a qualifying leg are indicated in italics in the results listing below.
This weekend will see three TOC qualifying tournaments take place: the Arizona State University Tournament at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, the Winston Churchill Tournament at Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio, Texas, and the Sunvitational at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Here are the results of the 2014 Laird Lewis Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Nida Ansari (Riverside High School, South Carolina)
2nd: Mark Cohen (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
3rd: Elizabeth Kingaby (Central Cabarrus High School, North Carolina)
4th: Harrison Stall (Southside High School, South Carolina)
5th: Bill Peebles (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
6th: Abhishek Kodumagulla (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
Semi-Finalists
*Thomas Abel (The Delbarton School, New Jersey)
*James Elliott Lovegrove (Bob Jones Academy, South Carolina)
*John Fitzgerald (The Delbarton School, New Jersey)
*Connor Leech (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Arjun Narayan (The Harker School, California)
*Eitan Sapiro-Gheiler (Durham Academy, North Carolina)