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Texas tournaments are usually large and last weekend’s Winston Churchill Classic in San Antonio, Texas was not exception. 100 extempers battled each other in International Extemp, while 116 competed in United States Extemp. Unlike St. Mark’s, extempers were not allowed to double in the extemp categories, so extempers could not earn both of the legs needed for their 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualification at the event.
Phoebe Lin of Plano West High School (TX), a finalist in International Extemp at the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational in October, won International Extemp, beating out Davis Larkin of the Parish Episcopal School (TX), who was a participant at the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin two weeks ago. In United States Extemp, Cosmo Albrecht of Robert E. Lee High School (TX) defeated Jackson Crawford of Klein High School (TX) for the tournament title. Albrecht finished second last month at the University of Texas Longhorn Classic to reigning NFL United States Extemp National Champion Arel Rende in the tournament’s International and United States Extemp categories.
All of the extempers that made elimination rounds earned a TOC qualifing leg. Crawford, Michael Formella of Southlake Carroll High School (TX), and Hasan Syed of Plano West High School became new TOC qualifiers by earning their second qualifying legs at the tournament. Thirty-two extempers earned their first qualifying leg. All extempers that earned a qualifying leg are indicated in italics.
Here are the results of the 2014 Winston Churchill Classic: