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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):
The 2013 extemporaneous speaking season has ended with the crowning of two new national champions at NFL Nationals. In International Extemp, Nathan Leys of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (Iowa) stopped Ashesh Rambachan of Eastview High School (Minnesota) from repeating as national champion and became the first Iowan extemper in the modern era (defined as the beginning of the USX/IX split) to win extemporaneous speaking at NFL Nationals. However, Rambachan did win the national final round, thereby becoming the first extemper in NFL history to repeat as final round national champion in the same extemporaneous speaking category. This is also the third consecutive year that an extemper from Minnesota has won the national final round championship in International Extemp. The two underclassmen in the final, Lyubov Kapko of Tempe Preparatory School (Arizona) and Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (Iowa), placed third and fifth, respectively.
The 2012 NFL National Tournament and with it the 2011-2012 competitive season has come to a close. Ashesh Rambachan of Eastview High School finished what he began last year by winning the International Extemp championship and becoming the third member of his family to do so. His sister Ishanaa won the championship in 2004 and his brother Akshar won the championship in 2007. Ashesh also joins his three siblings in winning the final round national championship. Rambachan’s victory in International Extemp foiled Lily Nellans chance to complete a Grand Slam, but she will have a chance to complete a career Grand Slam next year. Rambachan will also have the opportunity to repeat as champion, which has never been done before in International Extemp.
The 2010-2011 extemporaneous speaking season has come to a conclusion and at tonight’s 2011 NFL National Tournament awards ceremony, Jared Odessky of Nova High School was crowned as this year’s NFL national champion in United States Extemp and Dylan Slinger of Lakeville South High School in Minnesota became this year’s NFL national champion in International Extemp. Slinger’s victory gives him a “double crown” of CFL and NFL national championships, making him the third extemper to accomplish the feat. It is also Slinger’s third major championship. Odessky becomes the first extemper from Nova High School to win an extemporaneous speaking national championship at NFL and is the first extemper from Florida to win a national championship since Jay Ward won U.S. Extemp in 2002. Slinger and Odessky each won their respective final rounds and Slinger becomes the first extemper in NFL history to win the final rounds of U.S. and International Extemp in a career. Ashesh Rambachan of Eastview High School in Minnesota was the highest placing underclassmen in either category, finishing one spot behind Slinger in International Extemp.
Last week the National Junior Forensic League and International Debate Education Association National Middle School Forensics Tournament was held in Des Moines, Iowa and Gregory Ross of Sidney Lanier Middle School in Texas outlasted thirty-one other competitors to win his second consecutive NJFL extemporaneous speaking national championship. Ross had the same cumulative score as Lilly Nellans of Callanan Middle School in Iowa but won because of judges preference. Sidney Lanier had half of the participants in the final round.
Thanks to Andy Charrier of Lakeville South High School we’ve acquired the results for the top six at the 2010 Catholic Forensic League (CFL) Grand National tournament that was held in Omaha, Nebraska last week. As we initially reported, Dylan Slinger of Lakeville South High School in Minnesota captured the title over James Mohan of Danville High School in Kentucky. This was the third time in six years that a Minnesota extemper has won the CFL national championship. Since Slinger is a junior, he will have an opportunity next year to become the first extemper to repeat as CFL national champion since Jason Lear did it in 2000 and 2001. He will also have the opportunity to become the third extemper to win both CFL and NFL National championships in the same year, which Kevin Troy and Akshar Rambachan, the last two Minnesota extempers to win CFL, accomplished in 2005 and 2007.
Birmingham, Alabama. After five brutal days of competition, Stacey Chen of North Allegheny Senior High School in Pennsylvania emerged victorious in International Extemp by one rank and Evan Larson of Bellarmine College Prep in California captured the United States Extemp championship by a three rank margin. As a team, Bellarmine College Prep had an impressive showing, with second and third place finishes in IX to accompany Larson’s win. Meanwhile, CFL National Champion Alex Draime was denied a bid to capture a second national championship, as he placed fourth in U.S. extemp.