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At the beginning of the morning, more than 200 extempers were still alive in International and United States Extemporaneous Speaking. Now the field in each event has been whittled down to thirty. Tomorrow morning, these thirty extempers will give their ninth and tenth speeches of the tournament. They will seek a spot in the semi-finals, which will put them two rounds away from the NSDA final round stage and, for any non-seniors, give them an automatic qualification back to next year’s national tournament. By the end of tomorrow, we will know who the six finalists are in each category.
Octofinals did not carry any of its usual surprises as all of the big names of last year’s tournament and this year’s national circuit advanced to quarters. Last year’s USX finalists remain alive, as do other USX notables such as Jasper Primack of Newton South High School (MA), Brian Anderson of LaRue County High School (KY), Nida Ansari of Riverside High School (SC), Jad Hamdan of Jackson High School (OH), Cameron James Bonnewell of Lake Highland Preparatory (FL), and Brian Yu of Monte Vista High School (CA). In International Extemp, two of last year’s finalists remain alive as Lyubov Kapko of Tempe Preparatory Academy (AZ) and Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt (IA) clear to rounds nine and ten. They will be joined by other IX notables such as Miles Saffran of Trinity Preparatory School (FL), Dylan Adelman of Lakeville South High School (MN), Abhishek Bhargava of Jackson High School (OH), Gabe Slater of Denver East High School (CO), and Will Walker of Fullerton Joint Union High School (CA) tomorrow. The names in this paragraph are only a sampling of the great competitors that remain in the field.
California currently leads all the states in most extemp breaks to quarters with nine across both categories. Texas is second with seven.
A fact that illustrates the depth of this year’s quarter-final field is that eleven extempers in International Extemp have won a state championship at some point in their extemporaneous speaking career. In United States Extemp, nine extempers are state champions.
Extemp Central congratulates the thirty extempers in each category who have reached the quarter-final rounds.