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James Logan High School in Union City, California, one of the most successful forensic programs in the country, usually spends Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend hosting its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Invitational and this year was no exception. The tournament usually attracts a large field of the best programs in California and neighboring states and this year’s tournament did not disappoint as 107 extempers entered the United States Extemp portion of the tournament and sixty-nine extempers entered International Extemp. The tournament was cumulative and an extempers ranks followed them from prelims to finals, with the extemper having the lowest rank total winning the tournament.
In International Extemp, Alex Ye of Gabrielino High School (CA) took the championship in a final round that featured two participants at this year’s Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin. Rohan Dhoopar of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) took second, while Gabe Slater of Denver East High School (CO) took third. Ye won the tournament by three ranks.
In United States Extemp, Donghun Kang of Leland High School (CA) coasted to a four rank victory over hometown favorite Chance Boreczky of James Logan High School. Steven Chen of Doughtery Valley High School (CA) took third in that category.
Amazingly, despite the large number of participants in each field, which broke to quarter-finals, no extemper finalized their 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualification. All extempers who reached elimination rounds earned a qualifying leg and 50 extempers earned their first qualifying leg to this year’s TOC. They are indicated in italics below.
This weekend will be the busiest weekend of the year when it comes to TOC qualifying tournaments as five tournaments will offer qualifying legs. The two tournaments that will attract the most attention are the Barkley Forum at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and the Schwan’s Speech Spectacular in Marshall, Minnesota. The other three tournaments include the Columbia Invitational in New York City, the Alief Taylor High School Tournament in Houston, Texas, and the Downers Grove South Varsity Tournament in Downers Grove, Illinois. If any of our readers are attending these tournaments, anything you can do to help us receive timely results from these tournaments would be greatly appreciated. The most helpful information will be the the number of extempers in the field and the names of all extempers who reach each elimination round of the tournament.
Here are the results of the 2014 James Logan High School MLK Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):