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mba2010We are halfway through the competition at the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin in Nashville, Tennessee. Competitors have three rounds remaining in the day and the next round will be a domestic round, with the focus on President Obama and his administration.

Last round’s experimental topic concerned the Sochi Olympics. Extempers had two fake news stories to read discussing a new terrorist attack in Russia and the disaffection in the Russian military and then had to use that information to inform their approach to one of four questions they could select on various approaches toward the Sochi Olympics, which involved moving them to Vancouver, a Western boycott of the Olympic Games, whether Vladimir Putin should meet a series of Western demands about human rights in order to get security assistance, and whether the Olympic Games should be cancelled. There will be one more experimental round in the tournament that will be domestic in nature.

Section One

Judges: Peter Vogel, Elizabeth Clarke, and Harry Strong

*Jasper Primack (Newton South High School, Massachusetts)
*Jack Glaser (George Washington High School, Colorado)
*Jad Hamdan (Jackson High School, Ohio)
*Lyubov Kapko (Tempe Preparatory, Arizona)

Section Two

Judges: Max Webster, Colston Reid, and Tyler Fabbri

*Josh Wartel (Lake Braddock Secondary School, Virginia)
*Vaikunth Balaji (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Davis Larkin (Parish Episcopal School, Texas)
*Gabe Slater (Denver East High School, Colorado)

Section Three

Judges: Logan Scisco, Bill Thompson, and Aaron Lutkowitz

*Christopher Jordan (Brophy College Preparatory, Arizona)
*Will Walker (Fullerton Joint Union High School, California)
*Chase Harrison (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Lily Nellans (Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa)

Section Four

Judges: Seth Peckham, David Tucker, and Jason Warren

*Brian Anderson (LaRue County High School, Kentucky)
*Arel Rende (Booker T. Washington High School, Oklahoma)
*Miles Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Rohan Dhoopar (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)