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Brian Anderson of LaRue County High School made history at this year’s Kentucky High School Speech League (KHSSL) State Championshp by winning the extemporaneous speaking state title for the third consecutive year.
Anderson, last year’s Barkley Forum champion and who at one time was the top ranked extemper in the country in the Extemp Central National Points Race, went straight 1’s in the semi-final and final rounds of the tournament to defeat Jared Thomas of Harrison County High School by three ranks. Thomas finished third at last year’s tournament.
Lane Hedrick of Rowan County Senior High School, a two-time winner of the George C. Armstrong Heart of Illinois Invitational at Bradley University, finished third.
All of the finalists earned an automatic qualification to this year’s Extemp TOC at Northwestern University by virtue of making the tournament final round. This gives Kentucky five new TOC qualifiers as Anderson was already pre-qualified due to reaching elimination rounds at last year’s TOC.
Here are the results of the 2015 Kentucky High School Speech League State Championship (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Brian Anderson (LaRue County High School, Kentucky)
2nd: Jared Thomas (Harrison County High School, Kentucky)
3rd: Lane Hedrick (Rowan County Senior High School, Kentucky)
4th: Jorge Rojas-Ortega (Trinity High School, Kentucky)
5th: Sahil Nair (Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School, Kentucky)
6th: Patrick Edwards (Larry A. Ryle High School, Kentucky)
Semi-Finalists
*Shelby Amato (Henry Clay High School, Kentucky)
*Harper Anderson (Rowan County Senior High School, Kentucky)
*Mary-Scott Bugg (Danville High School, Kentucky)
*Jimmy Chen (Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School, Kentucky)
*Sue Cook (Danville High School, Kentucky)
*Reagan Davis (Assumption High School, Kentucky)
*Emily Falica (SKY Academy, Kentucky)
*Leila Abou Jaoude (Lafayette High School, Kentucky)
*Ivanka Raine (Cooper High School, Kentucky)
*Nathan Terrell (Rowan County Senior High School, Kentucky)
*Rachel Todd (Murray High School, Kentucky)
*Adrianna Waters (Boone County High School, Kentucky)
Extemp Central thanks the Kentucky High School Speech League for posting the results of the tournament online.