Nine Mercer High School speakers traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Memorial Day weekend to compete in the 64th Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament. There were approximately 275 competitors, each of which had to qualify for the national tournament by placing the top 3-5 places in their event during the qualifying tournaments in March. The four preliminary rounds were held on Saturday, May 23th where the field of the top 48 performers were narrowed into the round of 24 performers in each category. On Sunday, May 24th those competitors fought for the right to be one of the top 12 performers in the nation. From there only 6 performers/teams in each category competed in the final round.
The duo interpretation team of Adam Hoge and Ryan Hamilton qualified for the round of 24. After receiving high rankings in the preliminary rounds and surviving the first cut, the top duo team from Mercer failed to move onto the round of 12 amongst stiff competition. Their success marks their culmination in CFL competition as the most successful performers from Mercer High School at the Grand National Tournament.
Other Mercer speakers narrowly missed their advancement to the round of 24. Sophomore Rachel Bish, competing in declamation, tied with another competitor for the last spot to advance to the round of 24. Unfortunately, Rachel lost on the first tie breaker and her opponent moved forward.
Three other Mercer speakers turned in strong performances as they were ranked in the top three on 6 out of the 12 preliminary ballots. Mary Hogue in extemporaneous speaking, Janalyn Miklas in dramatic performance, and Maddie Rowe in oral interpretation all narrowly missed moving forward to the round of 24.
Congratulations to all nine speakers that traveled to the Grand National Tournament!
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