Welcome to the third monthly update for the 2021-22 National Points Race! In this edition, we discuss changes made to the tiering of the GMU Patriot Games, and cover the results from GMU as well as Villiger, Glenbrooks, UT Longhorn, and Princeton.
November and December are typically two of the busiest months when it comes to extemp competition, and 2021 proved no different.
The 42nd Villiger Tournament, typically held at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA, took place on NSDA Campus on the weekend of November 20th-21st. At the fifth-tier tournament, Nathan Tamkin (George Washington, CO) beat out Amy Cao (Ridge, NJ) on recips as both top finishers made bold statements at their first NPR placings of the season. Just one rank behind was Karam Weigert (Woodrow Wilson, DC) in third. Cao was joined by teammates Nikayla Karda-Marok and Kevin Li (Ridge, NJ) in fourth and fifth, respectively. Li’s co-host on the Extemper’s Bible podcast, Chirag Choudhary (Unionville, PA) rounded out the final round in sixth.
Because the Villiger Tournament had an abnormally large semifinal round, semifinalists will not be listed. Nonetheless, the Extemper’s Bible congratulates them on an excellent performance, and their results can be found in the tab sheet listed at this article’s end.
The same weekend, the Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament, a third-tier tournament, was held on NSDA Campus in place of its usual location at Glenbrook North High School, IL. Unlike last year, when US Extemp and International Extemp were split into different categories, the 2021 edition of the Glenbrooks saw a return to mixed extemp. In the final round, Daniel Kind (Lake Highland Prep, FL) continued his streak of early season wins by beating out Dev Ahuja (Solon, OH) for the crown. 2021 NPR Champion Mukta Dharmapurikar (Durham, NC) placed third, and 2021 top-ten finisher Peter Alisky (Smoky Hill, CO) finished just behind her. Rounding out the final round were other national circuit regulars Cameron Roberts (Jack C. Hays, TX) and Gabriel Frank-McPheter (Gabrielino, CA) in fifth and sixth, respectively.
Semifinalists (earning 250 points) are: Ryan Alappatt (Bellarmine College Prep, CA), William Chien (Harker, CA), Sinan Kassim (NSU, FL), Vikram Sundaram (Solon, OH), Luccia Yacoub (Gabrielino, CA), and Marc Zavarro (Western, FL).
The national circuit took a well-deserved break for Thanksgiving before returning to compete in December.
The University of Texas at Austin hosted the Tier 4 Longhorn Classic on December 4th-5th. In International Extemp, Roberts claimed her first victory of the season, picket-fencing the final round. Second through fourth place finishers all hailed from Plano West Sr., TX: Phoena Lin in second, Madeline Tsao in third, and Kyle Letterer in fourth, all separated by less than three ranks. Arjun Raman (Westwood, TX) and Krish Shah (Hebron, TX) closed out the all-in-state final round with fifth and sixth place respectively.
Meanwhile, in US Extemp, Letterer claimed a victory of his own. He beat out Meghna Ittycheria (Lake Travis, TX) at her first showing of the season. Lin took home a third-place finish in USX to accompany her second-place title in IX. Jonathan Tubb (St. Mary’s Hall, TX) took fourth, Kelly Hu (Plano West Sr., TX) took fifth, and Grace Fyfe (Spring Woods, TX) placed sixth to seal out yet another all-Texas final round.
Because there were multiple extemp categories at the Longhorn Classic, per NPR rules, every participant will earn results for their highest placement in either category.
Again, semifinalists will not be listed because of their large quantity across both IX and USX. Nonetheless, they will earn 125 points for their performance, and the Extemper’s Bible congratulates them.
That same weekend, Princeton University of Princeton, NJ held its annual Princeton Classic on NSDA Campus. This year, the fifth-tier tournament had an eight person final round. Alex Sorgini (La Salle, PA) claimed his first win of the season. Choudhary and Cao repeated their final round performances from Villiger, this time taking home second and third respectively. In fourth was Sophia Chaudri (Syosset, NY), who beat out Neha Modak (Milton Academy, MA) on reciprocals. Cindy De Dianous (Scarsdale, NY) finished sixth. Chaudri’s teammate Alex Wang placed seventh and the only non-Northeasterner in the round Elizabeth Wong (Durham, NC) placed eighth. However, because Princeton is a fifth-tier tournament, unfortunately, they will not earn any points.
Joining Wang and Wong in the semifinals (but without points) are Samarth Nagaraj (Ridge, NJ), James Cullen (Chaminade, NY), Tyler Tjan (Milton Academy, MA), and Sydney Carroll (Battle Ground, MA).
The last tournament of the 2021 calendar year is the Patriot Games typically hosted by George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Held the same weekend as Princeton and UT, this tournament is usually a third-tier tournament. However, because the 2021 Patriot Games continued to use asynchronous preliminary rounds, the NPR has decided to make the Patriot Games a fourth-tier tournament for the second year in a row. We have a policy of not lowering the value of tournaments after they occur in order to maintain fairness for all competitors, and we apologize for not making this announcement before the tournament occurred. Nonetheless, in this case, we are making an exception, since we referred to the possibility of GMU being demoted again as a result of their tournament structure in our discussion of the tournament last year and in our introduction to this year’s National Points Race.
With regards to the actual results of the tournament itself, yet another tournament fell victim to Kind’s seemingly-unstoppable run, as he claimed first place yet again. Olivia Wetzel (Whitmer, OH) made noise by placing second at her first NPR event of the year. Ahuja maintained his streak of consistent final round performances by taking third yet again, and another familiar final-round face placed fourth in Zavarro. Rounding out the round was Sundaram in fifth and Isabel Brittin (Potomac, VA) in sixth.
Semifinalists (earning 125 points each) are Cristian Carrilo of Western (FL), Olivia Declerq of Whitmer (OH), , Olivia Eads of Potomac (VA), Nathan Mu of University (IL), Eli Seiden of Western (FL), and Ashwin Rahalkar-Sasane of Ridge (NJ).
You can find Villiger results here.
You can find Glenbrooks results here.
You can find UT Longhorn IX results here and USX results here.
You can find Princeton results here.
You can find GMU results here.