On Monday, over 200 extempers started the 2012 NFL National Tournament in International and United States Extemp, respectively, and now the field has been narrowed down to the final six. Extempers have about 36 hours to get ready for the biggest round of their respective careers, with a national championship, a final round national championship, and $6,000 in scholarship money hanging in the balance.
Lily Nellans will have the opportunity on Friday to win the Extemp Grand Slam, which hasn’t been done since 2005. She could go a step further by winning the final round title as well. With Isabelle Taft being eliminated in the semi-final round, Nellans has clinched the 2012 National Points Race championship. Ashesh Rambachan will also have an opportunity in the IX final to avenge his defeat to Nellans at CFL Nationals and will have the opportunity to join his sister Ishanaa (2004) and brother Akshar (2007) who have won IX national championships. Abhilash Sandireddy of James Madison Memorial High School in Wisconsin also makes the final round. Sandireddy was a fifth place finisher at the Extemp TOC this year.
In United States Extemp, Bellarmine College Prep is not giving up the race for the National Team Points Race championship by getting two of its extempers, Denil Sur and Madhu Vijay to the final round. William McDonald and Chase Harrison, the top two ranked extempers in the National Points Race that were doing United States Extemp, have both made the final round. McDonald has two national circuit titles to his credit this year, winning Glenbrooks and Harvard, and was a sixth place finisher at MBA. Harrison was the Yale champion this season.
By the way, we forgot to note that any underclassmen that made semi-finals in IX & USX have earned an auto-qualification back to next year’s national tournament. Congratulations to those competitors.
For those extempers who are interested in the times of the final rounds, United States Extemp will start at 9:30 a.m. CST on Friday and International Extep will follow it at 11:00 a.m. CST. NFL has streamed the finals in the past and hopefully will do the same this year.
Each extempers National Points Race rank is listed by their name, with NR meaning that an extemper is not ranked.
International Extemp
(T72) Kohinoor Gill (Desert Vista High School, Arizona)
(NR) Daniel Morgan-Russell (George Washington High School, Colorado)
(1) Lily Nellans (Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa)
(NR) Linda Pei (Manhattan High School, Kansas)
(18) Asheshananda Rambachan (Eastview High School, Minnesota)
(34) Abhilash Sandireddy (James Madison Memorial High School, Wisconsin)
United States Extemp
(NR) Richard Clark (Cardinal Mooney High School, Ohio)
(7) Chase Harrison (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
(4) William McDonald (Brophy College Preparatory, Arizona)
(NR) Debnil Sur (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
(NR) Madhu Vijay (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
(T58) Alex Wasdahl (Jackson High School, Ohio)
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