March 7, 2009
Battery Park City, New York - The Bronx Prep speech team came through with a dominant performance over the weekend as every single BP student competing on Saturday not only reached the final round, but finished in the top six and qualified for the CFL National tournament in May.
The results are, quite simply, remarkable. Chris Moncrief (Original Oratory) and Tiffany McLarty and Tayshawn Layton (Duo Interpretation) were nearly perfect as they marched through the tournament and finished in first place. Chris and Tiff and Tay were each judged by nine judges on the day and in both cases, eight of the nine judges ranked them first in their rounds.
Matthew Alston and Jamej Lawton provided a success story of their own. The team is not incredibly well-known on the circuit, as they have only competed three times this year, but they snuck through to finals and a fifth place finish, putting them in the company of the other Bronx Prep duo team as qualifiers for the CFL National Tournament, to be held in Albany, NY in May.
Bronx Prep was the only school at the tournament to qualify two duo teams for nationals.
Bronx Prep's fourth entry was Keegon Robinson, competing in Oral Interpretation (Prose/Poetry). OI had the most students competing on Saturday of any event, but Keegon still managed to narrowly reach the semi-final round, only to post a stellar performance, win the round, and come from behind to earn his ticket to nationals. His hard work this year is truly paying off in the form of an opportunity to compete at a national level.
The team finished 10th in the overall team sweepstakes - a strong showing considering they brought only four entries (compared to Stuyvesant's sixteen and Regis's eighteen).
As the speech "post-season" approaches, here's a re-cap of the Bronx Prep qualifiers:
Already qualified for the New York State Championships (Albany, April) are Chris Moncrief and Tiffany McLarty and Tayshawn Layton. Half-qualified are Keegon Robinson and Deborah Allen-Carr (OI). Jamej Lawton and Matt Alston have no half-quals for states as of yet, but, along with Deborah and Keegon, they will have the opportunity to join Chris, Tiff and Tay by qualifying in one of the next two weekends.
Qualified for the NFL National tournament (Montgomery, Alabama, June) are Chris, Tiffany and Tayshawn and this past weekend's qualifiers for the CFL National tournament (Albany, May) are: Chris, Tiffany, Tayshawn, Matt, Jamej and Keegon.
It was an historic success for the program; congratulations to all of you.
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