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With sixty-three competitors in the field, all of the extempers that reached elimination rounds received a qualifying leg for this year’s Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. Three extempers – Emma Jackson of Danville High School (KY), Andrew Langford of Lake Highland Preparatory (FL), and Sanjay Supan of Nova Senior High School (FL) – earned their second qualifying legs and secured their at-large berth into this year’s TOC field. Eight other extempers earned their first leg. All of the extempers in the tournament’s final round had already qualified to the TOC.
There will be two TOC qualifying tournaments this weekend: The Pennsbury Falcon Invitational, hosted by Pennsbury High School in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania and The Apple Valley Minneapple Speech Tournament at Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Of the two tournaments, the Minneapple should attract the stronger field and will feature many of the same competitors who fought it out at the Chanhassen and Schwan’s tournaments the last weeks.
Here are the results of the 2014 Barkley Forum (Click here for tab sheet):
Fifty-two extempers arrived on the campus of Columbia University in New York City last weekend for the annual Columbia Invitational. George Mason University Patriot Games Champion Jasper Primack of Newton South High School (MA) netted his second TOC qualifying tournament victory of the season in dominating fashion, winning by thirteen ranks with a cumulative score of fifteen. Graham Piro of Iona Preparatory School (NY) took second. Last year’s Columbia champion, Gabe Ferrante, went on to win the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) Grand National Tournament, so one wonders if the tournament will have a correct prognostication for the second straight year.
The state of Minnesota played host to its second 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifier in as many weeks as Marshall High School and Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota played host to the annual Schwan’s Speech Spectacular. The tournament typically attracts a strong Midwest field and this year forty-two extempers competed in the varsity division. Adam Stromme of Eagan High School (MN) claimed his second TOC qualifying tournament title of the season by one rank in the final round over Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA). Stromme, an NFL finalist last year in United States Extemp and winner of the Dowling Catholic Paradigm in December, and Nellans ended the tournament with the same cumulative total of seventeen ranks, but Stromme bested Nellans in the final to break the tie. This is the second consecutive runner-up finish at a Minnesota TOC qualifier for Nellans, who narrowly lost last week to Haley Brahmbhatt of Chanhassen High School (MN) at the Chanhassen Speech Tournament. Brahmbhatt made the final of the Schwan’s as well and placed fifth. Montgomery Bell Academy participant Jack Glaser of George Washington High School (CO) was also in the final round and took sixth.
The last of the three Illinois-based 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifying tournaments, the Downers Grove South Varsity Tournament, took place last weekend at Downers Grove South High School in Downers Grove, Illinois. The tournament featured an all-Illinois final and Parth Patel of Huntley High School emerged as the tournament champion over Saumya Jain of Neuqua Valley High School. Neuqua Valley and Wheaton Warrenville South High School each had two finalists and Neuqua did better as Jain’s teammate Abhishek Nigam took third.
Since November 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that gay couples in Massachusetts had a right to marry, gay marriage has been a hot political topic. Some could also argue that the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996 made gay marriage a political issue, but the 2003 Massachusetts ruling in conjunction with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordering his city to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in 2004 made the gay marriage debate a more prominent national issue. President George W. Bush was able to use state-level constitutional amendments that prohibited gay marriage to provide momentum to his re-election campaign in 2004 and push for a national constitutional amendment to ban the practice. Since 2004 the proponents of gay marriage have experienced significant judicial victories, with the Supreme Court invalidating an element of DOMA last year and four states legalizing gay marriage after the decision: New Jersey, Hawaii, Illinois, and New Mexico. Currently, seventeen states, along with the District of Columbia, recognize gay marriage and lawsuits are pending in federal courts to invalidate state constitutional amendments that prohibit gay marriage. Due to the growing number of lawsuits on the state level against gay marriage prohibitions, it only seems like a matter of time before the Supreme Court will have to weigh in about gay marriage again and extempers could confront questions about the constitutionality of gay marriage in the near future.
Here is today’s premium R&D to accompany 
James Logan High School in Union City, California, one of the most successful forensic programs in the country, usually spends Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend hosting its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Invitational and this year was no exception. The tournament usually attracts a large field of the best programs in California and neighboring states and this year’s tournament did not disappoint as 107 extempers entered the United States Extemp portion of the tournament and sixty-nine extempers entered International Extemp. The tournament was cumulative and an extempers ranks followed them from prelims to finals, with the extemper having the lowest rank total winning the tournament.