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Last weekend, 96 extempers converged on Northbrook, Illinois for the annual Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament, which is the largest invitational on the national circuit held by a high school program. The field featured a healthy diversity of geographic talent, which included Wake Forest and Yale champion Miles Saffran of Trinity Preparatory School (FL), this season’s Blue Key U.S. Extemp winner Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA), and winners of Florida Extemp TOC qualifying tournaments Noah Wexler of Nova Senior High School (FL) and Daniel Greene of the University School (FL). Of this group, Nellans was the only one to reach the tournament’s final round and she won the tournament by five ranks over Gabe Slater of Denver East High School (CO). Christopher Jordan of Brophy College Preparatory (AZ), who was a runner-up at last year’s NFL National Tournament in United States Extemp, took third. This is the first time in at least eleven years that the Glenbrooks has been won in back-to-back years by different extempers from the same school. Nellans former teammate, Nathan Leys, won last year’s event. The Glenbrooks has traditionally been seen as a bellwether of the NFL National Tournament in June since four of its last five champions (Stacey Chen-2008, Dylan Slinger-2010, Bill McDonald-2011, and Leys-2012) went on to win national titles. Since 2008 every winner of the Glenbrooks has made the final round in their respective extemp category at NFL.
The large size of the tournament meant that everyone who made elimination rounds, which began at quarter-finals, earned a qualifying leg to the 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. Four extempers, Thomas Abel of Delbarton High School (NJ), Adam Hamilton of the Bronx High School of Science (NY), Yijia Liang of Upper Arlington High School (OH), and Rohith Kuditipudi of The Harker School (CA), earned their second qualifying leg and qualified for the 2014 TOC. Three other extempers earned their first qualifying leg. All extempers who earned a TOC qualfying leg at the Glenbrooks are indicated in italics.
Here are the results of this year’s Glenbrooks Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):