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Here is the second part of our participant capsules for this year’s Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin in Nashville, Tennessee. Check back tomorrow for a poll, where you can cast your vote for who you think will win this year’s tournament! If you missed part I of this preview, you can read it here.
KEY: DNA = Did Not Attend; DNC = Did Not Clear (Break); NR = Not Ranked
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This Saturday and Sunday, sixteen of the nation’s best extemporaneous speakers will compete in Nashville, Tennessee at the eighteenth edition of the Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) Extemp Round Robin. This year’s event is different from previous years in that the tournament will take place over two days instead of three and there will be no Exhibition Round this year due to time constraints. Still, the tournament will feature ten rounds, with each competitor hitting every other competitor twice, and the winner of the tournament will receive 150 points in the National Points Race.
Last season, Josh Wartel of Lake Braddock Secondary School (VA) won by a comfortable margin, becoming the first Virginia extemper to do so, while Phoebe Lin of Plano West Senior High School (TX) captured the Exhibition Round title. Wartel later went on to win the final round of the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA)’s National Tournament in Dallas, Texas and the competitor that finished second – Brian Anderson of LaRue County High School (KY) – won the International Extemp national championship at that same event. None of last year’s Exhibition Round participants are returning for this year’s competition, an unusual event for a tournament where an underclassmen typically places in the top five.
This year’s tournament field features the winners of ten 2015-2016 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifying tournaments, six 2015 state champions, and nine of the top ten competitors in the National Points Race. In fact, the winners of all of the 2015-2016 National Points Race tournaments are represented. And six competitors are veterans of the tournament with one of them (Vaikunth Balaji) returning for the third time.
It would be apt to call this year’s competition a “team tournament within a tournament” as three schools – Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA), Ridge High School (NJ), and Trinity Preparatory School (FL) – each have two extempers in the field.
Today and tomorrow, Extemp Central will provide brief capsules for each of the sixteen extempers invited to participate in this year’s MBA Round Robin. The capsules have been arranged in alphabetical order.
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