February marked a month of national circuit competition prior to months with the final tournaments in the national points race. The month started out with the Stanford Invitational on the sixth, with two tournaments the very next week. The twelfth marked the start of the Harvard National Forensics Tournament, traditionally the largest tournament in the Points Race excluding nationals, and the first tier two tournament of the season. The very next day marked the start of one of the largest tournaments of the west coast: The Cal Invitational at UC Berkeley.
As a tier five tournament, the Stanford Invitational only earns points for finalists towards the National Points Race. As a reminder, participants only earn the points for their best performance out of the two fields in the event of a double finalist. For International extemp, Luccia Yacoub of Gabrielino High School (CA) earned 400 points, after championing the event, beating out Gautham Sudhaker of Dougherty Valley High School (CA), who earned 300 points towards our points race from the second place finish. Earning themselves 250 and 200 points were Michelle Jin of the Harker School (CA) and Rishi Anand of Cupertino High School (CA) respectively. In fifth place was Emma Wu of the Taipei American School, earning 150 points. Rounding out the final round for international extemp at Stanford was MBA invitee Peter Alisky of Smoky Hill High School (CO) in sixth place, earning 100 points towards the points race. For US extemp, Kyle Letterer of Marchman Academy High School (TX) came out on top of the final round, earning 400 points. Closely behind was runner up William Chien of the Harker School (CA), who earned 300 points towards the points race. Rounding out the top three was another MBA invitee, Katelyn Cai of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ), who earned 250 points. Rounding out the US extemp final round were Rishi Anand, Ashok Ramkumar of Bellarmine College Prep (CA), and Alex Zhang of Monta Vista High School (CA), in fourth, fifth, and sixth place respectively.
The Cal Invitational at UC Berkeley is traditionally the largest tournament on the west coast, and is a tier three tournament. Coming out on top of the seven person final round and earning 900 points was Michelle Jin of the Harker School (CA), who beat out teammates Owen Thompson and Kush Narang of Bellarmine College Prep (CA) who finished second and third respectively, earning 750 and 675 points. In fourth place was Natasha Banga of Coppell High School (TX), earning 600 points. In fifth place was Shreyas Sriram of Cherry Creek High School (CO), earning 525 points, followed by teammate of Narang and Thompson, Ashok Ramkumar in sixth place, earning 450 points towards the race. In seventh place was Serena Klebba of Isidore Newman High School (LA), earning 250 points towards the national points race.
Semifinalists at Cal also earned 250 points each, and included Lauren Adams of Bakersfield High School (CA), Atmaja Patil and Stanford finalist Alex Zhang of Monta Vista High School (CA), Nihaar Charagulla and Oliver Owen of Bellarmine College Prep (CA), Sanjay Amirthraj of Westwood High School (TX), Theodore Gercken of College Prep High School (CA), and Krishiv Haranath of Dougherty Valley High School (CA). Quarterfinalists at Cal all earned 100 points for the race.
The Harvard National Forensics tournament is the first tier two tournament of the season, and attracted competition from across the country, as per usual. Winning the prestigious tournament was Daniel Kind of Lake Highland Prep (FL), who won over four MBA invitees including the current top three in our National Points Race, and earned 1200 points towards the race. One rank behind Kind in the final round was the runner up: Katelyn Cai, earning 1000 points to secure second place in the National Points Race moving forward in the season. Mukta Dharmapurikar of Durham Academy (NC) finished third at the tournament, and also now sits at third in our National Points race after finishing Harvard finals one rank behind Cai. In fourth place was Katherine Rollins of the Potomac School (VA), who finished with the same ranks as Dharmapurikar but earned 800 points to lead the National Points Race. The separation in ranks between fourth and fifth was slightly larger than the top four contests, all of whom were separated by one rank or less. In fifth place, earning 700 points, was MBA invitee Ananth Veluvali of Edina High School (MN), with fellow Minnesotan Allison Hering of Eastview High School (MN) rounding out the final round in sixth place, earning 600 points from the tournament.
Semifinalists at Harvard all earned 450 points towards the points race, and included Cameron Roberts of Jack C. Hays High School (TX), James Cullen of Chaminade High School (NY), Laurel Holley of Riverside High School (SC), Anushka Kumar and MBA invitee Pranav Pattatathunaduvil of Plano West Sr. High School (TX), and Kyle Letterer. Quarterfinalists at Harvard earned 250 points towards the race, while octofinalists earned 100.
The season now heads to a small break in competition, as the next large national circuit tournament that competitors prepare for are the Tournaments of Champions (both the University of Kentucky TOC and Extemp TOC), followed by nationals at the very end of the season. Although the season is nearing the final few tournaments, the National Points Race remains close, and performance at these next few tournaments will undoubtedly determine final placements in the race! Good luck to all those preparing for tournaments later in the season!
You can find full results for Stanford US Extemp here.
You can find full results for Stanford International Extemp here
You can find the full results for Cal here.
You can find the the full results for Harvard here.