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More than 200 extempers attended this year’s Harvard National High School Forensic Invitational, making it the largest national circuit tournament of the 2014-2015 season. However, weather conditions led to the tournament having a truncated schedule and deciding to break to quarter-finals after four rounds. This resulted in a break of just over ten percent of the field and some of the better national circuit competitors coming just shy of the break.
Despite the difficuties, elimination rounds did feature some strong competition, with six of the top fifteen extempers in the National Points Race participating. Justin Graham of Trinity Preparatory School (FL) won his second National Points Race tournament of the year, defeating Shawn Kant of Ridge High School (NJ) by seven ranks in the final round. Graham will earn 150 points for his victory, as Harvard is a second tier tournament, and this will move him back into first place in the National Points Race. He is also the first Florida extemper to win Harvard since at least 2002.
Eitan Sapiro-Gheiler of Durham Academy (NC) finished the tournament in third place, which gives him his sixth National Points final round placing of the season. That is more than any other extemper this season.
Patrick Wilson‘s attempt at giving Booker T. Washington High School (OK) its second Harvard winner in as many years came up short, as he ended the tournament in fourth place.
Two extempers – Abhinav Karale of the Delbarton School (NJ) and Rupasri Shankar of Plano Senior High School (TX) – finalized their 2015 Extemp TOC at-large bids at Harvard.
All of the finalists also earned an automatic qualification to the 2015 University of Kentucky TOC.
Here are the results of the 2015 Harvard National High School Forensic Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
The University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic hosted one of its larger fields in recent years, due in part to the weather difficulties that plagued the Harvard National High School Forensic Invitational. Nick Guiliano of Holy Ghost Preparatory (PA) won this year’s tournament, defeating teammate Collin Quigley by a cumulative total of eight ranks. Guiliano is the first extemper from Holy Ghost to win UPenn since 2004, when Michael Hoffman took the title. He is also the third consecutive Pennsylvania extemper to win the tournament.
Last year, American officials, including President Barack Obama, cited Yemen as an example of a nation that was successfully fighting terrorism. However, 2015 has not been kind to the Arab world’s poorest country. Last month, Shi’ite Houthi rebels kidnapped the Yemeni President’s chief of staff and seized the presidential palace. This led to the resignation of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has now been placed under house arrest. The nation’s parliament has also been dissolved and the United Nations warns of that a civil war could be looming because the Houthis are a minority that cannot command allegiance from other areas of the country. Anti-terrorism experts warn that the country’s Sunni majority may swear allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in an attempt to overthrow the Houthis. This could complicate American efforts to suppress AQAP, which has targeted Western airliners in recent years and trained one of the attackers of 
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The Stanford National Invitational illustrated how different variations of extemp can produce very different results as only one competitor made the final round of International and United States Extemp last weekend in Palo Alto, California. That competitor, Ethan Hu of Leland High School (CA), took fourth in United States Extemp and sixth in International Extemp, and as a result of his finishes he will receive the forty National Points Race points awarded for the tournament. Stanford is the last of fifth tier tournaments in this year’s National Points Race.
Along with Montana, Maine became one of the first states to hold its state championship tournament when it hosted the state’s best extemporaneous speakers at Lewistown High School last weekend. This year’s Maine Forensic Association (MFA) crowned Abby Westberry of Maranacook Community High School as its state champion. The MFA State Tournament is cumulative and Westberry staged a comeback in the final round, going straight one’s among the three finals judges and securing a three rank margin of victory over Desmond Molloy of Falmouth High School.
The three week Minnesota TOC swing ended last weekend in Apple Valley, Minnesota at the Apple Valley Minneapple Speech Tournament. Alex Fenner of East Ridge High School (MN) emerged as the tournament champion, defeating Alex Baker of Eastview High School (MN) by five ranks in the final round. Jacob Thompson of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA) took third place.