Final Destination

We're all back in New Mexico after a week in Dallas for the National Tournament. The tournament was a great experience for all of us on the trip, and we have a slew of new knowledge to prove it. While no placing trophies were brought home, our competitors are proud for making as far as they did at the national level. At a tournament where a girl who placed first in Humorous Interpretation at the Harvard and Stanford tournaments doesn't make it past quarterfinals, much can be said about unpredictability.

In supplemental events, including prose, extemp commentary, and supplemental debate, everyone from our team made it past the first cut. Many made it past the second cut. Quinlan went on past five cuts before being eliminated, making it into the top 30 of 250 competitors in extemp commentary, surely a feat to be recognized. Erin proceeded through 6 cuts in Supplemental Debate, also making it into the top 30 out of 300 competitors. Both should be extremely proud.

As the tournament came to a close, the team watched HI, DI, and Duo finals on Friday night, which was a treat. All of the HI's that made finals were hilarious, the DI's were filled with impact, and the Duo's had both. Although our team quickly began to argue about which piece would take first, which second, and so on, in the three events (we're debaters, what can we say?), the results at awards were closest to what Mr. Smith had guessed, in all three events. I suppose he knows how to judge a good performance and a bad one.

Some of us chose to sacrifice sleep Saturday morning in order to watch Original Oratory (a ten minute, memorized, persuasive speech on a topic of the competitors choice) and Extemp finals. We learned a lot to bring back to New Mexico from the performances, all of which were great.

Our flight back to Albuquerque left this morning at 8:30, and we arrived back in NM at around 9:10 (NM time is an hour behind). Our overall experience at the National Forensic League's National Tournament in Dallas was a great one. Next year, the tournament will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, and we hope to break the ten-qualifier barrier and bring around 15 competitors. But we'll try not to jinx it.

You can expect more updates this summer on work we're doing to prepare for next season, and I will try to keep this blog constantly active. Thanks to all of you who have been following for the past week, we appreciate your support, and we hope to see you in the future.