NITOC 2016 Final Day & Awards!

What an amazing week we've had!  So thankful to the Stoa Board for organizing a great national tournament. I can't even begin to imagine how much work goes into planning a tournament for over 600 students. 

David broke to Finals today in Apol and we all went to support him.  He gave a winning speech and we were all proud of him. 

The awards ceremony was tonight.  It was a time of celebration and fun for all the competitors. Here are the final standings for our Vector Team. 

Speech Awards:

David 8th Place Apol 

Beckett 25th Place Monologue

Kyle 28th Place Mars Hill, 20th Extemp, 17th Apol 

Debate:

Kyle 27th Team Policy Speaker

Kyle & David 49th in TP with a 5-1 record

Kyle 28th Parli Speaker

Kyle and Beckett 28th in Parli, 4-2 record

And of Course, more pictures!

Final Round Apol

Watching the final Parli Round

Award ceremony is about to begin. 

Quarters and Semis!

NITOC 2016 is wrapping up.  Only one more day left.  More and more students are on campus in shorts and t's and the audiences in rounds are getting larger as breaks eliminate more and more students from the competition. Beckett and Kyle were sadly eliminated in Parli today. 

However, in the speech arena Vector remains strong!  Beckett, Kyle, and David broke to quarters this morning. Beckett in  Monologue, David in Apol, and Kyle in Apol, Mars Hill, and Extemp.  

Later this evening semi-final breaks were announced this afternoon and the boys made it to semi-finals!!  David in Apol, Kyle in Apol and Extemp, and Beckett in Monologue.  They competed tonight and will hear breaks for speech finals in the morning.  

Regardless of how they finish, I am so proud of ALL our Vector competitors! I'll make one more post tomorrow night after the awards ceremony.  Stay tuned!

If you want to watch the awards ceremony live Sat night at 8:30 ET Click here: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCEe8iMCHOApXTsaoV9v7TCA

Some pics from today:

Kyle in the Mars Hill Quarter-final round. 

Semi-final breaks for Speech

Listening to Breaks

What's the secret to your success, Kyle? "Please no photos." 

Beckett mistakenly puts on the wrong jacket before a round. 

NITOC 4TH DAY!

Last I reported Kyle and Beckett broke to Double Octas in Parli.  They competed late last night, and wowed all of us who were watching the round.  It was a FANTASTIC debate round, the best I've ever seen either Kyle or Beckett speak!  The Res: The use of weapons of mass destruction can be morally justified.  We were Opp, and it was a great clash.  The round was so good on both sides, we have no idea which way the judges would go.  We'll find out tomorrow (Fri) at 1p if they will advance to the next level.

Today was a great day, and no rain!!  Everyone had speech rounds but there's no news to report on any progress.  It was day 3 of Speech Prelims, and Speech breaks will be announced in the morning (Fri) at 7am.  Quarterfinals and Semis will be during the day on Friday.  I'll keep you posted!

Tonight the entire Vector gang enjoyed dinner out at a local Peruvian restaurant -- great food!  Back at the campus we joined in the Stoa Beach Party with ice cream and a live band.  It was awesome to see the whole student body (parents & Mrs. Snyder too!) dance, hang out, or play ball on the lawn. It was great music and fun for everyone.

Some pictures from today:

 Beckett giving his 3rd Extemp speech on why the US should improve relations with Cuba

 Dads are the judging backbone!

Lunchtime!

A great dinner at Cafe Caruso

 More spotlight on dads

Ice Cream and Soccer/Frisbee on the Lawn

 Mrs. Snyder & Mrs. Craig do the Macarena!

 Jamming with Low Rent District

NITOC 2016 Day 3

595... That's the number of ballots given out today!  To say it's a feat of unbelievable proportions is an understatement. 

Despite having to get to their rounds through torrential rain and flooded streets, today went well for our team in both speech and debate.  David and Kyle broke to Triple Octafinals this morning and competed twice for double elimination. Kyle said, "I was very surprised that we broke because we didn't think we had a winning record so far."  

In round 2 had the privilege of watching Katey perform her OO, and she did a fantastic job!  The boys said their speech rounds went well too. 

Announcements for the next set of breaks for debate were at 5:30p...

Kyle and David sadly did not advance in TP, but Beckett and Kyle broke to Double Octafinals--the top 32 Parli teams!! 

Here are some pictures from today: 

Katey's Original Oratory

Judge tables and ballot return. 

Waiting for Break announcements can be long!

After their Extemp round today

NITOC Day 1 & 2

Team Vector competed in 14 rounds these last two days -- Monday & Tuesday were full of Parli and TP/LD rounds, and Tuesday was also the beginning of Speech. Kyle Ziemnick is amazing-- he has competed in EVERY SINGLE ROUND!!

There's still a full week ahead full of rounds and more rounds.  Everyone is having fun, be it the students competing and hanging out between rounds, or the moms & dads judging and staffing the tournament.  There's a great camaraderie here with our team and with the larger national Stoa family. It's exciting to have thousands of people joined together for one purpose.  

Breaks for TP will be announced tomorrow (Wed) am, and Parli breaks will be announced tomorrow (Wed) night -- keep rooting for Kyle & David in TP and Kyle & Beckett in Parli!  And don't forget to pray for them and Katey in their speech rounds over the next few days!

Here are some photos from the past two days:

 Virginia in Parli Prep time

 Kyle, the Energizer Bunny 

 

 Moms love working Ballots!

 Ballot 'Give' (Push) at Nitoc is bigger than Texas! 565 ballots on Monday alone!

 

 

Boden snoozes (and snores) during Kyle's Parli speech

NITOC 2016 is Underway!

Our Vector National Team is on campus at Drury University in Springfield, MO, with 600 other competitors this week! Please be praying for them to do their best in debate and kill those speeches!  

I'll be posting on our Vector Blog this week to keep you up-to-date as to the competition, but you can check out the latest news and watch Break Announcements live on the NITOC YouTube channel: TwentySixteen NITOC.  

Opening Ceremonies on Sunday