Paltzik becomes the first person in the history of the Yale University Invitational to win it three consecutive times. Prior to this year there had been three extempers in Yale’s history to win back-to-back titles: Josh Bone of Milton Academy (MA) in 2002 and 2003, Daniel Rauch of Millburn High School (NJ) in 2004 and 2005, and Kate Fisher of St. Mary’s Hall (TX) in 2017 and 2018.
It is also the sixth straight time dating back to last year’s Yale tournament that Paltzik won a National Points Race event after reaching the final round.
Katherine Lee of Plano West Senior High School (TX) was the third place finisher, ending up one cumulative rank behind Tubb. If not for Yale’s tabulation system that counts all ranks from prelims to finals, Lee would have finished second as she placed one rank behind Paltzik in the final round and beat Tubb by eight ranks.
Lee’s teammate, Kyle Letterer, finished fourth, while Kevin Li of Ridge High School (NJ) was fifth, and Dana Ko of Pine Creek High School (CO) was sixth.
There were seventy-eight extempers competing at Yale, so all extempers who reached the semi-final round earn a bid leg to the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC). Although the Extemp TOC has not released its qualification system for 2022-2023 it can also be assumed that all semi-finalists earn a bid leg to that tournament as well.
Yale is a fourth tier event in the National Points Race. Paltzik will earn seventy points for her victory and all extempers who reached the semi-final round will earn points. New National Points Race standings will be released on Friday.
Here are the results of the 2022 Yale University Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: McKinley Paltzik (Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona)
2nd: Jonathan Tubb (St. Mary’s Hall, Texas)
3rd: Katherine Lee (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
4th: Kyle Letterer (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
5th: Kevin Li (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
6th: Dana Ko (Pine Creek High School, Colorado)
Semi-Finalists
*Sebastian Barnes (La Salle College High School, Pennsylvania)
*Gabriel Bo (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Caleb Chung (Pine Creek High School, Colorado)
*Theodore Gercken (The College Preparatory School, California)
*Lauren Kim (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
*Phoena Lin (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
Quarter-Finalists
*Amy Cao (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Melinda Deng (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Oliver Huang (Princeton High School, New Jersey)
*Pranav Kalakuntla (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Lucas Mejia-Fanjul (Regis High School, New York)
*Varun Nannuri (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Sruti Peddi (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
*Andy Qin (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Kaaviya Shenbaharaman (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Madeline Tsao (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Siri Ural (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
Extemp Central thanks Yale University for putting the results of the tournament online.