A not so well Mirza Germovic finished 16th in the round robin just missing 15th. It was an incredible experience and just being selected says a lot about Mirza and our program. Getting Catherine and Amelia there to help with the tournament says a lot about them as people and, again, about our program. It did not go unnoticed by Cyndi Woodhouse that our students were helping the tournament.
All 3 of our students learned a ton about extemp and tournaments. Amelia and Catherine watched a lot of rounds in addition to their tournament duties. That got to see the best do their thing.
While the field was impressive, it's still any one's national championship. Dillion Huff will be considered the best in the country now but he was bad in a couple of rounds. So even the top ranked student is beatable.
If we get people to Kansas City in June in extemp, we can do it. This is not the field of the past few years where there were the 8-10 national level kids that just didn't lose to anyone else! I suspect next year's field will be about the same although there are a couple of identifiable juniors now.
