Last weekend, competitors converged on the University of Florida for the 2010 Florida Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament. The tournament allowed extempers to do International and United States Extemporaneous Speaking and there was a lot of volatility in the final results. Joseph Calder of Cary Academy in North Carolina, who was invited to compete at this year’s George Mason University Patriot Games Round Robin, won the International Extemp competition, while Jared Odessky of Nova High School in Florida won the United States Extemp competition. Odessky adds this title to the International Extemp title he won last year at Blue Key. Catherine Chiodo of Des Moines Roosevelt High School in Iowa, who will also be competing at the George Mason Round Robin, and Brandon Slotkin of Nova High School in Florida were the only extempers to final in both extemp categories. Chiodo placed fourth in the United States Extemp portion and sixth in the International Extemp portion and Slotkin took fifth in both categories.
Since the Florida Blue Key is a qualifier for the 2011 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC), all of the competitors listed below earned TOC bids.
Here are the results from the 2010 Florida Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament: