This year marked the 25th edition of the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin in Nashville, Tennessee. Sixteen of the best extempers in the country were invited for the first major championship of the year, which was won once again by #1 McKinley Palzik of Phoenix Country Day School (AZ).
Paltzik captured her third major championship by a 20-rank margin. In her run through the cumulative event, Paltzik only earned one rank below a three among the thirty ballots available. She is the second MBA winner to defend their title. The last extemper to do it was Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA), who won three MBA crowns between 2012 and 2014.
Paltzik will receive 150 points in the National Points Race for winning as MBA is one of the few second tier tournaments in the rankings.
The battle for second place was much closer. #14 Phoena Lin of Plano West Senior High School (TX) defeated teammate and IX Longhorn Classic winner #4 Kyle Letterer by two ranks to finish runner-up.
#3 Theodore Gercken of the College Preparatory School (CA) claimed fourth place, finishing five ranks ahead of fifth place and four ranks behind Letterer.
Another close fight at the tournament for fifth place. #6 Gabriel Bo gave Plano West an impressive three-for-three mark in getting exempers into the top five, edging out #12 Jonathan Tubb of St. Mary’s Hall (TX) and #2 Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) by one rank.
The tie between Tubb and Peddi for sixth was broken in Tubb’s favor. Tubb, who finished second at Yale in October, will receive sixth place points in the National Points, which is the cut off for points awarded at the tournament.
Here are the results of the 2023 Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin:
Champion: McKinley Paltzik (Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona)
2nd: Phoena Lin (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
3rd: Kyle Letterer (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
4th: Theodore Gercken (The College Preparatory School, California)
5th: Gabriel Bo (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
6th: Jonathan Tubb (St. Mary’s Hall, Texas)
Participants
*Dev Ahuja (Solon High School, Ohio)
*Taylor Burris (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Amy Cao (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Kevin Li (Ridge High School, Texas)
*Pierce McDade (Normal University School, Florida)
*Sruti Peddi (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
*Raghav Ramki (Plano East Senior High School, Texas)
*Vikram Sundaram (Solon High School, Ohio)
*Rohit Vakkalagadda (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Jack Ververis (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
This year’s Round Robin field.
Extemp Central thanks MBA tournament director Adam Johnson for sharing these results with us. We also thank Sandip Gupta for the picture of the participants.