(Note: This is a corrected write up because Blue Key had a tabulation error in IX that altered the original placings)
The University of Florida played host to the 2018 Florida Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament, a fifth tier event in the National Points Race, on October 26-28, 2018. The tournament attracted its usual bevy of Florida extempers, with Kay Rollins of the Potomac School (VA) and Tristan Wertanzl of Cypress Bay High School (FL) winning the United States extemp and international extemp categories, respectively.
Wertanzl was initially announced the tournament’s sixth place finisher in international extemp, but a tabulation error was later uncovered that made him the winner. Rollins ended up winning U.S. Extemp by one rank over Wertanzl’s teammate, Jose Quinones.
Rollins performance was the second time that she reached the final round of a National Points Race event this season, having made the finals of the Yale Invitational in September. The same was true of Brian Zheng of Naperville North High School (IL), who placed fifth in international extemp and third in United States extemp and moved into a tie for second place in the National Points Race with Rollins after this event (although Rollins owned a tiebreaker for having a victory).
Due to the fact that Blue Key had an international and United States extemp portion, competitors were awarded points based on a formula that calculates how well they did across both halves of the competition. This prevents an extemper from earning double points at one tournament. Rollins had the best performance across both categories of any extemper at the tournament and received the forty National Points Race points for the event. Quinones and Zheng were awarded second and third place points. Fourth place points were given to Mo Marks of Theodore Roosevelt High School (IA), who was a semi-finalist in the United States extemp half and was a fourth place finisher in the international extemp portion. Wertanzl got fifth place points as he was a quarter-finalist in the U.S. Extemp portion. Finally, sixth place points ended up as a three way tie between Max Pinkiert of NSU University School (FL), New York City Invitational winner Juliette Reyes of American Heritage School (FL), and Rehan Rupawalla of Tompkins High School (TX). All three of these competitors were semi-finalists in each category.
Here are the results of the 2018 Florida Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):