Welcome to the fourth of nine monthly updates on the standings and tournament results for the 2020-21 National Points Race! This edition features the results from UT, GMU, and Princeton.
The first weekend in December marked a busy weekend for the circuit, with three tournaments – the UT Longhorn Classic, the GMU Patriot Games, and the Princeton Classic – occurring simultaneously, wrapping up the calendar year 2020. The points for each tournament were given based off their respective tier as per usual. However, the tiers of both GMU and UT were changed mid-season. To read the reasoning behind the switch for GMU, click here. To read the reasoning behind the switch for UT, click here.
The University of Texas Longhorn Classic was the only tier 4 tournament during the weekend, and separated IX and USX, so competitors received points based off their best performance in either field. Plano West Sr. High School (TX) seemed to stand out, with defending NSDA IX champion Angela Wang and current leader in the points race Pranav Pattathunaduvil of Plano West winning IX and USX respectively. In IX, Pattathunaduvil finished second, ahead of Allen Zhang of A&M Consolidated (TX) who took third in IX and fourth in USX. Charles Hou of Plano West Sr. High School was the last competitor to reach the final round in both fields, finishing third in USX and fifth in IX. Rounding out the final round for IX were teammates Madeline Tsao and Gabriel Bo of Jasper High School (TX), who placed fourth and sixth respectively. In USX, Katelyn Cai of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) finished second, also representing the only competitor from outside of Texas that competed in a final round at the tournament across both extemp fields. Other finalists in USX included Sanjay Amirthraj of Westwood (TX) who took fifth, and Jishnu Basu of Plano Senior (TX) who took sixth place, while reaching semifinals in IX .
Anushka Kumar of Plano West Sr. and Kyle Letterer of Jasper High School (TX) were the only semifinalists in both USX and IX, joining Leo Yu of Plano West Sr., Natasha Banga of Coppell High School (TX), and Isaac Doty of Lubbock High School (TX) in IX, and Sinan Kassim of NSU University School (FL), Evelyn Huang of Louis D. Brandeis (TX), Olivia Yang of Westwood (TX), and Grace Fyfe of Spring Woods High School (TX) in USX. All semifinalists earned 125 points for the National Points Race.
The George Mason University Patriot Games held asynchronous preliminary rounds for extemp for the first time in the history of the tournament, also representing the first major circuit tournament to do so this season. After competing in synchronous elimination rounds, Krishna Sanaka of the Hawken School (OH) took first place in the tournament, earning 600 points in the points race to end the calendar year in fourth place in the race. Laurel Holley of Riverside High School (SC) took second, beating Sanaka’s teammate Molly Xiao, who finished third. Behind Xiao was Mayin Puri of Ridge High School (NJ) and Marc Zavarro of Western High School (FL), finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Rounding out the final round was the Hawken School’s Praveen Kumar who finished sixth.
The final tournament over this weekend was the Princeton Classic, typically held at Princeton University. Winning the tournament was Ethan Jiang of Seven Lakes High School (TX), earning himself 400 points to end 2020 in seventh place for the points race, edging out Alex Sorgini of La Salle College High School (PA), who earned 300 points. In third place was Peter Alisky of Smoky Hill High School (CO), earning himself 250 points to end the calendar year in second place in our points race. In fourth place was Alex Zhang of Monta Vista High School (CA), ahead of Oliver Fuisz of the Collegiate School (NY). In sixth place was Duke champion Tyler Tjan from Milton Academy (MA).
You can find the full results from IX at UT here, and USX at UT here.
You can find the full results from GMU here.
You can find the full results from Princeton here.
Click here for a quick wrap-up and the current standings of National Points Race thus far.