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Extemporaneous speaking was the largest event at this year’s National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) Grand National Tournament, with 246 extempers arriving in Chicago, Illinois to lay claim to the season’s first national championship. The late elimination rounds featured two national finalists, four state champions, and five Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin participants, but it was Monica Coscia, a semi-finalist at this year’s Yale and Princeton tournaments, as well as a runner-up at this year’s New Jersey state tournament in United States Extemp, that took the title. Coscia thwarted Lily Nellans bid for a 2014 grand slam and a successful defense of her 2012 CFL national title (Nellans did not compete in last year’s tournament). Nellans, who competes for Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA), tied Coscia at the end of eight rounds of competition, but lost the final round by one rank, which was the tournament tiebreaker. Coscia’s victory is the first CFL national championship for a New Jersey extemper since at least 1997 and her victory means that women have won two of the last three CFL national championships.
Josh Wartel of Lake Braddock Secondary School (VA) was the tournament’s highest placing underclassmen, coming in third and finishing only one rank behind Coscia and Nellans.
William Walker of Fullerton Joint Union High School (CA), a Glenbrooks finalist and 2014 MBA participant, was the only extemper to win two first place ranks in the final round, but two sixth place ranks weighed down his cumulative total and he finished fourth.
The topic area of the final round was U.S. economic policy.
All of the underclassmen who qualified for elimination rounds earned an automatic qualification to the 2015 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. Seventeen extempers, not counting those underclassmen who had previously qualified through 2014 TOC outrounds and 2014 state finals, earned a qualification to the TOC through this route and are indicated in italics below.
Here are the results of the 2014 National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Monica Coscia (Montville Township High School, New Jersey)
2nd: Lily Nellans (Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa)
3rd: Josh Wartel (Lake Braddock Secondary School, Virginia)
4th: Will Walker (Fullerton Joint Union High School, California)
5th: Brian Duricy (Howland High School, Ohio)
6th: Vishal Narayanaswamy (James Madison Memorial High School, Wisconsin)
Semi-Finalists
*Dylan Adelman (Lakeville South High School, Minnesota)
*Natalia Castro (Jupiter High School, Florida)
*Justin Graham (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Yijia Liang (Upper Arlington High School, Ohio)
*Arjun Prakash (Blue Valley High School, Kansas)
*Miles Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
Quarter-Finalists
*Sue Cook (Danville High School, Kentucky)
*Shawn Kant (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Ryan Klobus (Syosset High School, New York)
*J.P. Miller (Upper St. Clair High School, Pennsylvania)
*Cristine Oh (Montville Township High School, New Jersey)
*William Peebles (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
*Collin Quigley (Holy Ghost Preparatory School, Pennsylvania)
*Nathaniel Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Ellis Sargeant (St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Pennsylvania)
*Sidarth Singh (Munster High School, Indiana)
*Rathnam Venkat (Munster High School, Indiana)
*Drayton Willey (Salina High School Central, Kansas)
Octo-Finalists
*Richie Abel (Canfield High School, Ohio)
*Thomas Abel (Delbarton School, New Jersey)
*Brian Anderson (LaRue County High School, Kentucky)
*Vaikunth Balaji (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Charlie Barton (Regis High School, New York)
*Carly Beard (Clayton High School, Maryland)
*Varun Bhatia (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Haley Brahmbhatt (Chanhassen High School, Minnesota)
*Sydney Britton (American Heritage School, Florida)
*Chase Carlson (Eden Prairie High School, Minnesota)
*Teresa Chen (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Nick Giuliano (Holy Ghost Preparatory School, Pennsylvania)
*Mylan Gray (Sumner Academy, Kansas)
*Edric Huang (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Emma Jackson (Danville High School, Kentucky)
*Justin Kang (Syosset High School, New York)
*Megan Kline (El Dorado High School, Kansas)
*Walter Paul (Creighton Preparatory School, Nebraska)
*Graham Piro (Iona Preparatory School, New York)
*Jasper Primack (Newton South High School, Massachusetts)
*Rasika Ramanathan (James Madison Memorial High School, Wisconsin)
*Kylee Rippy (Plymouth High School, Indiana)
*Ademali Sengal (Lamar High School – Houston, Texas)
*Alexander Trobough (Sumner Academy, Kansas)
Extemp Central thanks the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) for putting the tournament results online.