Awards ended a short time ago for the 2011 Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament and Dylan Slinger of Lakeville South High School in Minnesota successfully defended the national title that he won last year in Omaha, Nebraska. To win his second CFL national championship, Slinger beat back National Points Race leader Nathaniel Donahue of Durham Academy of North Carolina in a rehash of the Glenbrooks tournament from earlier in the season. Slinger also avenged a defeat two weeks ago at the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions by defeated Ben Constine of Yorktown High School in Virginia. This is the first time in ten years that an extemper has repeated as the CFL national champion in extemporaneous speaking. The last extemper to do so was Jason Lear in 2000 and 2001. Sophomore extemper Isabelle Taft from Henry W. Grady High School in Georgia continued her impressive season, which has included victories at Wake Forest and the Barkley Forum, by placing fourth and Ben Mabie of James Logan High School in California, who was the top seed going into elimination rounds, placed fifth. Brandon Pakkebier of Sheboygan High School in Wisconsin, who was a quarter-finalist at this year’s TOC, placed sixth.
Aside from Slinger’s victory, the other notable event is that Donahue’s second place finish, which is his eighth top three finish of the year, has clinched the National Points Race. While this will make NFL a formality, it should be noted that the second and third place finishers also receive awards from Extemp Central, so extempers who are within striking distance of those spots still have something to shoot for at NFL. The National Points Race will be updated near the end of next week so extempers can see where they stand heading into the NFL National Tournament.
Here are the results of the 2011 Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament. All of these elimination round participants have earned an automatic qualification to the 2012 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. All of the extempers who made it to the quarter-final round and beyond will earn National Points Race points: