Faces Update

My goal is 120 faces and names in 15 minutes. The US Memory Championship gives 126 names in 15 minutes. My score should place me in the top 5 when (not if because we need to remain optimistic) I accomplish it.
Doing the math, that gives me 7 seconds per face; I am not there yet. Currently, using Memory Lock from the Google Play store, I am scoring between 21-22 out of 30 possible points. That is 15 faces and names in 5 minutes, or about triple my goal speed.
I am slowly building a list in my mind of common names and images to go with them. It is important to have distinct images for each so I  don't get confused. Originally, I pictured a seal for both Lucille and Cecile. I would use the wrong  name. So, being from Washington helps this, I picture now Cecile as a seal and Lucille as a sealion.  I have also had good success using children for any last na!e ending in "-son."
I have already noted that I need an object for both the first and last name rather than my first attempts where I attempted object+action for first+last. I then attempt to link them with an action. The app I am using is a good mix of common names and uncommon names. Common names actually are more difficult, probably because I am not working to form the images. I also think I am simply using old methods on these rather than applying new techniques.
I do suffer from some level of face blindness. For this reason, I have been working to not include hair and eyeglasses into an image. These become so common that I confuse all bald white men or all dark haired women. Sometimes getting perfect spelling of complex names, such as Adamczyk, on the wrong person.
I would like to attempt some sort of loci method. But since recall faces are shuffled, I don't know that this is wise. I would be for to send and exit my journey at many points. Still, I will incorporate pairs of people in the action phase to not memory and hopefully overcome face blindness.