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The Harvard National High School Invitational Forensic Tournament lived up to its billing as the largest national circuit tournament in the nation last weekend when it hosted 274 extempers on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The tournament offered a very diverse and competitive field, featuring twelve TOC qualifying tournament champions and several national finalists. The final round had four of the top five finishers from this year’s Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin and the top five finishers at this year’s tournament won TOC qualifying tournaments on the national circuit this season.
Arel Rende of Booker T. Washington High School (OK), the reigning NFL National Champion in United States Extemporaneous Speaking, won this year’s tournament and denied Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA) the historic opportunity to repeat as Harvard champion. Rende did not take a first place rank in the final round, but his consistency among the five-judge panel with a 2-2-2-3-3 composite was enough for a one-rank victory over Nellans, who went 1-1-2-4-5 in the final. Miles Saffran of Trinity Prepartory School (FL), a winner of four TOC qualifying tournaments this season, had a feast-or-famine final round, as he took three first place ranks, but also took two sixth place ranks, which caused him to finish third. Rende’s victory is his fourth TOC qualifying tournament championship of the season and it is the second time this season that he has kept Nellans from repeating as tournament champion at an event on the national circuit. Rende did the same thing in the United States Extemp category at St. Mark’s in October. Trinity Preparatory School had two finalists, which is an amazing feat considering the size and diversity of this year’s tournament.
The tournament broke to a double octo-final round, meaning that ninety-six extempers participated in the tournament’s elimination rounds. Fifteenn extempers – Talha Ahsan of Eagan High School (MN), Josh Carney of Newton South High School (MA), Maleeha Chida of Scarsdale High School (NY), William Cook of Southlake Carroll Senior High School (TX), Mohica Coscia of Montville Township High School (NJ), Addie Glickstien of Denver East High School (CO), Cody Jones of Lakeville North High School (MN), Shawn Kant and Avni Mahagaoker of Ridge High School (NJ), Christopher Lee of Regis High School (NY), Priya Patel of Foster High School (TX), Naba Rahman of Pine View School (FL), Mark Rinder of Freehold Township High School (NJ), Raj Viswaprabakaran of Plano Senior High School (TX), and Meghan Weston of Fullerton Joint Union High School (CA) – completed their at-large TOC qualification and eighteen other extempers earned their first qualifying leg. Those who earned a qualifying leg at Harvard are indicated in italics below.
This weekend will feature the last two at-large qualifying tournaments for this year’s TOC. The Robert D. Clark Invitational will be held on the University of Oregon’s campus in Eugene, Oregon and Salina High Central in Salina, Kansas will host its annual Salina High Central Invitational. There will also be automatic qualification opportunities for the finalists of state tournaments in Kentucky and Illinois.
Here are the results of the 2014 Harvard National High School Invitational Forensic Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):