Billy Strong lost an opprotunity to claim a national extemp title on Sunday by the slimmist of all margins--on the 4th tie breaker and even then, by less than half a point. Reid Bagwell of Scarsdale, NY won the 3 way tie for the championship by beating Billy and Maddie Gardner on the 4th tie breakers in extemp (reciprocals). So Billy's high school extemp career ends at #2 in the individual rankings, #2 at TOC, #2 at Harvard, #1 at George Mason, #2 at Mason's round robin, #5 at MBA round robin and #1 at Schwan's. What a season for Billy! His worst National Circuit event this season: semi finalist at Glenbrook's! He also ends his extemp career with an amazing fact--he never failed to break at a Natonal Circuit Event or for that matter, any extemp tournament including his freshman season.
There are 4 debate national championships: Novice Nationals for first year students; Tournament of Champions (TOC), the Catholic Championships and the NFL Nationals.
On a panel of 9 judges Billy landed his two first place ballots from the two college coaches on the panel. His 2 rankings all came from Northwestern and U of Chicago college students. It was high school speech judges from whom he failed to get higher rankings.
