Report provided courtesy of Daniel Kind
In Gainesville, Florida on Halloween weekend, the 36th annual Florida Blue Key tournament took place. As per usual with Blue Key, the tournament was held with clean breaks. Differing from the usual, however, was the combining of the International Extemp and Domestic Extemp Section. This Mixed Extemporaneous Speaking pool drew in 120 competitors all over the nation, from California to Tennessee.Juliette Reyes from the American Heritage School (FL) picked fenced the final round, earning straight 1st place rankings from the three judges in the final to win the tournament. Gus Lanz of Cypress Bay High School (FL) came in 2nd place. Right on his heels and separated by a margin of one rank, Mo Marks from Theodore Roosevelt High School (IA) earned 3rd place. Mary Courtney Finn, hailing from the Battle Ground Academy (TN) came in 4th place. Meanwhile Bhrajit Thakur of Trinity Preparatory School (FL) and Sinan Kassim from the NSU University School (FL) finished out the finalists in 5th and 6th place respectively.
In other news, congratulations to Mo Marks for getting 1st place and Juliette Reyes for getting 2nd place in the Blue Key Extemp Round Robin. Additionally, congratulations to the other Round Robin participants, Bhrajit Thakur, Sil Gamboa Marty, Mukta Dharmapurikar, Gus Lanz, and Daniel Kind.
Blue Key is another fifth tier tournament in the 2019-2020 Extemp Central National Points Race. Reyes earned 40 points for her victory, while Lanz attained 34, Marks gained 28, Finn scored 20, Thakur got 16, and Kassim accrued 13 points.
Here are the results of the 2019 Florida Blue Key (Click here for tab sheet):