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Two of the top five extempers in this year’s National Points Race won state championships at last week’s Florida Forensic League State Championship Tournament. In International Extemp, Noah Wexler of Nova Senior High School, who is ranked fifth in the country, achieved an eight-rank victory over Andrew Langford of Lake Highland Preparatory School. This is Wexler’s first state championship and it is the first time that a Nova extemper has won the International Extemp category in seven years. Nova had four of the six finalists in the category, with Sanjay Supan finishing third, Adele Stock finishing fourth, and Eleanor Bock finishing sixth.
In United States Extemp, National Points Race leader Justin Graham of Trinity Preparatory School defeated teammate Nathaniel Saffran by four ranks to claim his first state championship. Saffran was attempting to give his family back-to-back winners in the category, as his brother Miles won the United States Extemp championship last season. Graham and Saffran tied each other in the final round, but Graham had a better semi-final performance, thereby giving him the edge in the cumulatively tabbed tournament. Daniel Greene of the University School finished third.
All of the finalists earned an automatic qualification to this year’s 2015 Extemp TOC at Northwestern University. Three extempers – Greene and Samantha Koreman of the University School and Oscar Larraza of Nova – give Florida three additional qualifiers to the TOC.
Here are the results of the 2015 Florida Forensic League State Championship Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):
International Extemp
Champion: Noah Wexler (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
2nd: Andrew Langford (Lake Highland Preparatory School, Florida)
3rd: Sanjay Supan (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
4th: Adele Stock (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
5th: Giancarlo Musetti (Cypress Bay High School, Florida)
6th: Eleanor Bock (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
Semi-Finalists
*Tyler Anderson (Christopher Columbus High School, Florida)
*David Barrs (Lake Mary Preparatory, Florida)
*Jared Bello (Lake Highland Preparatory, Florida)
*William Brodnar (Oxbridge Academy, Florida)
*Matthew Herskowitz (The University School, Florida)
*Jack Yan (Dreyfoos School of the Arts, Florida)
United States Extemp
Champion: Justin Graham (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
2nd: Nathaniel Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
3rd: Daniel Greene (The University School, Florida)
4th: Samantha Koreman (The University School, Florida)
5th: Naba Rahman (Pine View School, Florida)
6th: Oscar Larraza (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
Semi-Finalists
*Nathanael Hasselbring (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Jacob Levenson (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Alexandra Lipton (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Dylan Lough (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Ryan Najmi (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Ian Sorensen (Western High School, Florida)
Extemp Central thanks the Florida Forensic League for putting the results of the tournament online.