Blair places fourth in county forensics tournament

Blair placed fourth and three Blair students won high-ranking awards in the Montgomery County Forensics League Championships at an awards ceremony on March 26. Out of the seventeen high schools that competed in the tournament, Walter Johnson won first place, Northwest second, Damascus third, Blair fourth, Whitman fifth, and Magruder sixth.

Danielle Prados received second place in the category of serious poetry. Anita Umarji received fourth in informative speaking while Abigail Fraeman won sixth place for serious poetry.

Out of eleven categories, students from Walter Johnson won three first-place awards in the categories of serious prose, humorous interpretation, and persuasive oratory. Churchill won for informative speaking, Rockville for children's literature, Magruder for ensemble acting, Whitman for extemporaneous speaking, Einstein for serious poetry, and Northwest for reader's theatre.

The tournament was decided from three qualifying competitions on October 27, December 17, and February 22. The finalists from these competitions continued to a final tournament on March 22 and 23. The placement of each student in the different competitions earns points for their respective schools. The school with the largest number of culminated points wins the M.C.F.L. Team Award.

According to Blair forensics coach Richard Rhodes, this is the first time that Blair has ever placed in the top sixth and this is only the second year that Blair has placed any students into the finals.

A Blair student placed in seven of the eleven possible categories in the March 22 and 23 tournament: Danielle Prados in Serious Prose; Abby Fraeman and Danielle Prados in Serious Poetry; Danielle Prados, Cindy Keyser, and Annie Peirce in Serious Dramatic Interpretation; Anita Umarji in Informative; Tina Shook in Children's Literature; Abby Fraeman in Humorous Interpretation; and Elizabeth Finn for Extemporaneous Speaking.

Forensics, not to be confused with the study of cadavers, is made up of eleven different categories; children's literature, serious dramatic interpretation, ensemble acting, extemporaneous speaking, humorous interpretation, informative speaking, persuasive oratory, serious interpretation, serious prose interpretation, and readers' theatre. Most speeches are between five and ten minutes long and, except for readers' theatre and ensemble acting, performed alone.

The forensics club meets on Wednesdays after 3:00 in room 261.