After two days of competition, the 2011 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) has come to a close and Ben Constine of Yorktown High School in Virginia is your winner. Constine, who finished second at the George Mason Extemp Round Robin, fourth at the Wake Forest National Early Bird, and was a quarter-finalist at the George Mason University Patriot Games Tournament and at Harvard, scored what many could call an upset in the final round when he defeated last year’s CFL extemp national champion, Dylan Slinger of Lakeville High School in Minnesota, by judges preferences to win the title. Constine is the first Virginia extemper to win a National Points Race tournament since Ariel Schneller won Yale in 2001. Slinger was the only competitor in the top 15 in the National Points Race to make the final round. Texas, which had more qualifiers to this year’s TOC than any other state, had two finalists. Matthew Hinojosa of Flower Mound High School placed third and Susan Czaikowski, who was an NFL semi-finalist in United States Extemp last year and was invited to this year’s Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin, placed fifth. Matt Rauen of Pennsbury High School in Pennsylvania placed fourth and Emily Bell of Ladue Horton Watkins High School in Missouri made her second National Points Race final of the year and placed sixth.
The other major news of the tournament is that Nathaniel Donahue’s streak of top two finishes in National Points Race tournaments was broken over the weekend. A top three finish would have clinched this year’s National Points Race, but Donahue will have to await the outcome of the 2011 CFL national tournament to see where he stands going into NFL Nationals. With 375 points remaining, Donahue has a 320 point advantage, so he is very much in the driver’s seat over the last month of the season.
Here are the full results of this year’s Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions:
Champion: Ben Constine (Yorktown High School, Virginia)
2nd: Dylan Slinger (Lakeville South High School, Minnesota)
3rd: Matthew Hinojosa (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
4th: Matt Rauen (Pennsbury High School, Pennsylvania)
5th: Susan Czaikowski (Lamar Consolidated High School, Texas)
6th: Emily Bell (Ladue Horton Watkins High School, Missouri)
Semi-Finalists
*Grayson Clark (Lamar Consolidated High School, Texas)
*Nathaniel Donahue (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Samantha Karas (Lincoln East High School, Nebraska)
*Eric Mattson (Lincoln East High School, Nebraska)
*Jason Singh (Green Valley High School, Nevada)
*Neal White (Lake Travis High School, Texas)
Quarter-Finalists
*Luke Bishop (Savannah R3 High School, Missouri)
*Henry Chapman (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Catherine Chiodo (Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa)
*Chase Harrison (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Zachary Klein (Montville High School, New Jersey)
*Nathan Leyes (Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa)
*Matt Linn (The University School, Florida)
*Brandon Pakkebier (Sheboygan North High School, Wisconsin)
*Indira Puri (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Forrest Richardson (Savannah R3 High School, Missouri)
*Zachary Stone (Plano West High School, Texas)
*Noah Whinston (Evanston Township High School, Illinois)
Coach of the Year Award: Joe Uhler (L.C. Anderson High School, Texas)
Extemp TOC Service Award: Jason Warren (George Mason University)
We greatly appreciate Robert Sheard and Tyler Fabbri for providing us with updates from the tournament this weekend. The National Points Race will be updated on Thursday to reflect these results and a new 2012 Extemp TOC qual board will be posted for next year’s tournament. Extemp Central congratulates all of this year’s Extemp TOC competitors and elimination round participants.
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