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Nova Southeastern University was the site of this year’s Sunvitational, one of the more notable tournaments of the spring semester in the Southeast. Adele Stock of Nova Senior High School (FL) scored an upset win by edging out teammate Noah Wexler, who was coming off of a fourth place finish at the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin, by one rank in the cumulative tournament to claim the championship. Wexler won the final round by one rank, but Stock’s collection of first place ranks in preliminary rounds and quarter-finals helped her claim the title. Justin Graham of Trinity Preparatory School (FL), who currently sits in third place in the National Points Race, was the third place finisher.
Stock’s win builds on a series of final round placings at several National Points Race tournaments last semester. In October she finaled at the New York City Invitational and the International Extemp portion of the Florida Blue Key.
The final round was entirely composed of Florida extempers and was mostly a battle between Nova and Trinity Preparatory extempers. Nova had three extempers in the final round with Sanjay Supan finishing sixth for the team behind Stock and Wexler. Nathaniel Saffran was Trinity Preparatory’s other extemper in the final round. He finished fourth. Isabella DeSheplo of Cypress Bay High School (FL) was the other finalist. She took fifth place honors.
The tournament also featured a Round Robin competition. This was won by Wexler, with Graham finishing six ranks behind. Saffran took third in that competition. Stock did not participate in the Round Robin.
All of the elimination round participants at the Sunvitational earned bids to the 2015 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC). Four extempers – Mary Breen of Gwynedd Mercy Academy (PA), Jessica Chow and DeSheplo of Nova, and Jarrek Holmes of Kent Denver School (CO) – earned their second TOC legs to wrap up their at-large qualification to the tournament. Twelve other extempers earned their first bid to the TOC. The extempers who earned a TOC bid are indicated in italics below.
The finalists of the tournament also earned an automatic qualification to the University of Kentucky TOC in April.
Here are the results of the 2015 Sunvitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Adele Stock (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
2nd: Noah Wexler (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
3rd: Justin Graham (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
4th: Nathaniel Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
5th: Isabella DeSheplo (Cypress Bay High School, Florida)
6th: Sanjay Supan (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
Semi-Finalists
*Kendra Blandon (Cypress Bay High School, Florida)
*Jarrek Holmes (Kent Denver School, Colorado)
*Jacob Levenson (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Giancarlo Musetti (Cypress Bay High School, Florida)
*Oluwakamiye Obaro (Millard West High School, Nebraska)
*Jay Sirot (Montville Township High School, New Jersey)
*Noah Weinflash (Montville Township High School, New Jersey)
Quarter-Finalists
*Shamshad Ali (Suncoast High School, Florida)
*Alex Baikovitz (American Heritage School-Plantation, Florida)
*Eleanor Bock (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Paul Bousquet (Battleground Academy, Tennessee)
*Mary Breen (Gwynedd Mercy Academy, Pennsylvania)
*Jessica Chow (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Daniel Gamboa (Cypress Bay High School, Florida)
*Nathanael Hasselbring (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Oscar Larraza (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Dylan Lough (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Ryan Naimi (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Aaron Patel (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Naba Rahman (Pine View School, Florida)
*Jack Yan (Dreyfoos School of the Arts, Florida)
*Amber Yang (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
Extemp Central thanks the University School for posting the results of the tournament online.