Over Memorial Day weekend, over 200 extempers gathered in Baltimore, Maryland for the 2012 National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament. In the final round, National Points Race leader Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School continued her winning streak at major tournaments on the national level and notched her third consecutive Grand Slam victory. It is also Nellans third major extemp championship, all of which she has won this year and it is her fifth victory in a National Points Race tournament this season. Nellans entered the final round trailing the runner-up, Ashesh Rambachan of Eastview High School in Minnesota, who was the runner-up to Dylan Slinger at last year’s NFL National Tournament in International Extemp, but rallied by taking four of the five available first place ranks. Nellans becomes the first sophomore to win the CFL Grand National championship and the first sophomore to win a national championship since Kevin Troy accomplished that feat ten years ago in Atlanta, Georgia at the 2003 NFL National Tournament in United States Extemp. Nellans becomes the first female extemper to win CFL Nationals since 2004, when Courtney Otto of Kentucky Country Day School in Kentucky won the tournament. Isabelle Taft of Henry W. Grady High School in Georgia, who was this year’s George Mason winner and who finished behind Nellans at the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin, placed third. Allison McKibban of El Dorado High School in Kansas also deserves an honorable mention for making the final round, as she also made the finals of the Extemp TOC two weeks ago.
All of the extempers that made elimination rounds at this year’s CFL have automatically qualified for the 2013 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions at Northwestern University. All of the extempers that made the quarter-final round and beyond will earn National Points Race points.
Here are the full results of the 2012 NCFL Grand National Tournament (the tab sheet can be accessed by clicking here):