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The 2014-2015 National Points Race continued last weekend at the James Logan MLK Invitational. The tournament attracted some of the strongest competitors on the West Coast, with California powers such as Bellarmine College Preparatory, James Logan, Leland High School, and Gabrielino High School participating. In International Extemp, Rohan Dhoopar of Bellarmine College Preparatory, who finished third at last year’s National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) national tournament in the category, defeated defending champion Alex Ye of Gabrielino by five ranks. The tournament was tabbed cumulatively and Dhoopar defeated Ye by one rank in the tournament final. Matthew Zheng of Mira Loma High School (CA) took third.
In United States Extemp, Cameron Loftis of Leland won the title by two ranks over teammate Sid Venkateswaran. Loftis won the tournament final by two ranks. Third place finisher Arjun Narayan of the Harker School (CA) placed second in the final round to Loftis.
For the National Points Race, Dhoopar and Loftis will receive forty points for their victories since James Logan is a fifth tier tournament in the standings. Each final round featured seven competitors, so the top six in each category will receive National Points Race points.
All of the competitors who reached the semi-final round earned a qualifying leg to the 2015 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. Two extempers – Dhoopar and Addie Glickstien of Denver East High School (CO) – locked up their at-large qualification for this year’s TOC. Fifteen other extempers earned their first qualifying leg. All of the extempers who earned a qualifying leg are indicated in italics below.
The finalists in each category also earned an automatic qualification to the University of Kentucky TOC in April.
Here are the results of the 2015 James Logan MLK Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
International Extemp
Champion: Rohan Dhoopar (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
2nd: Alex Ye (Gabrielino High School, California)
3rd: Matthew Zheng (Mira Loma High School, California)
4th; Derek Eggleston (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
5th: Ann-Kathrin Merz (Leland High School, California)
6th: Stephanie Miller (Desert Vista High School, Arizona)
7th: Shreyan Jain (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Addie Glickstien (Denver East High School, Colorado)
*Michael Ligier (Monta Vista High School, Colorado)
*Jason Ma (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Jimmy Ma (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Sathvik Nair (Leland High School, California)
*Pranaya Pahwa (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Sakthi Ponnuswamy (Presentation High School, California)
Quarter-Finalists
*Tim Chung (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Max Davidson (Denver East High School, Colorado)
*Miguel Fiandeiro (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Samuel Gillespie (Lodi High School, California)
*Sudarshan Kannan (Cupertino High School, California)
*Man Khaine (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Samika Kikkeri (Presentation High School, California)
*Devashish Madeka (Stockdale High School, California)
*Danny Polissky (The Nueva School, California)
*Ravi Prasad (James Enochs High School, California)
*Sanjay Shukla (Lodi High School, California)
*Mariah Stewart (Presentation High School, California)
*Eunice Yang (Los Altos High School, California)
*Natasha Young (Delta Charter High School,
United States Extemp
Champion: Cameron Loftis (Leland High School, California)
2nd: Sid Venkateswaran (Leland High School, California)
3rd: Arjun Narayan (The Harker School, California)
4th: Andrew Tally (Denver East High School, Colorado)
5th: Chance Boreczky (James Logan High School, California)
6th: Kyle Wang (Saratoga High School, California)
7th: Aquila A. Maliyekkal (Stockdale High School, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Bryant Cong (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Amulya Donthi (James Logan High School, California)
*Sai Sumana Kaluvai (Granite Bay High School, California)
*Akhil Kestur (Leland High School, California)
*Tony Lin (Cupertino High School, California)
*Ross Snyder (Denver East High School, California)
*Alex Young (Cupertino High School, California)
Quarter-Finalists
*Shahzane Ali (Granite Bay High School, California)
*Lucas Bartell (Turlock High School, California)
*Joshua Baumbach (Lodi High School, California)
*Evan Cornelius (Dublin High School, California)
*Deandra Du (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Cameron Ervin (Bullard High School, California)
*Ryan Frazier(Clovis East High School, California)
*Gavin Greene (Claremont High School, California)
*Ian Hartley (Sonoma Academy, California)
*Nikhil Kansal (Leland High Schoool, California)
*Jashanpal S. Mangat (Clovis North High School, California)
*Carli Million (Lodi High School, California)
*Omkar Savant (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Shankara Srikantan (Cupertino High School, California)
Extemp Central thanks James Logan High School for putting the results of the tournament online.