This year’s Florida Blue Key, held on November 1-3 on the campus of the University of Florida, drew a field of 68 extempers. Most attendees were from Florida but extempers from North Carolina, Texas, New York, California, and Ohio made the trip for the second fourth tier tournament in this year’s National Points Race.
Sven Stumbauer of Christopher Columbus High School (FL) won a very divided final round, defeating #6 Al Zaidi of Holy Trinity Episcopal School (FL) by two ranks to claim the title. Stumbauer took one first place rank in finals, as did Zaidi. That made secondary ranks important as Stumbauer took two second place ranks while Zaidi, pulled two third place ranks.
Katherine Liu of Plano West Senior High School (TX) was the highest finishing non-Floridian, taking third place. She finished four ranks back of Stumbauer and two of Zaidi, taking the other available first place rank in the final round.
Of the three remaining finalists, #5 Sahana Srikanth of Mason High School (OH) was most notable because of reaching a third National Points Race final round this year, more than any other competitor to this point in the season. Srikanth took sixth, seven ranks back of Shriya Dharmapurikar of Durham Academy (NC) and two back of Rohan Dash of Pine View School (NC).
There were several notable extempers in the field who did not reach the final round. #8 Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL) was defending champion but dropped in quarter-finals. #7 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School (CA) and #16 Kai Forbach of Durham made it to semi-finals.
Jonah Downs of Trinity Preparatory School (FL) was the winner of the Blue Key Round Robin held before the tournament. Downs defeated Pranav Gorty of Plano East Senior High School (TX) by two ranks after four rounds of competition. Gorty would reach quarter-finals of the general tournament while Downs did not clear out of preliminaries.
This year’s Blue Key was upgraded to fourth tier status so all extempers who reached semi-finals will earn National Points Race points. Stumbauer earns 70 points as the winner. No credit is awarded for the Blue Key Round Robin. New National Points Race standings will be released tomorrow night.
Here are the results of the 2024 Florida Blue Key (Click here for tab sheet):