Editor’s Note: Preparing students for AP testing led to the delay of this write up. Our write up of the Extemp TOC will follow on Thursday and there will be an update to the National Points Race by early next week.
A few weeks ago, the University of Kentucky hosted its annual Tournament of Champions (TOC) event. 74 extempers converged on Lexington, Kentucky for the third tier event, which was narrowly won by #12 Pierce McDade of the University School (IL).
McDade won his first National Points Race event, and the first event of the post-season, by one rank over #17 Gordy Sun of the Harker School (CA) and two ranks over #3 Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) and #8 Amy Cao of Ridge High School (NJ).
The five judges in the final round split their first place ranks across five different competitors and Cao almost won the tournament without taking any of them. In the end, an errant six did not cost McDade the tournament as Sun and Peddi’s chances of winning the title were dashed by a sixth place rank in their final round score.
Peddi and Cao tied for third place, but Peddi won a judges preference tiebreaker 3-2 for her fourth top three finish of the season.
Fifth place was won by Sumedh Seetharam of Scottsdale Preparatory Academy (AZ), who finished two ranks behind Cao and two ahead of California Invitational winner, #9 Rohit Vakkalagadda of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA).
#10 Charlotte Reitman of the University School (FL) and #14 Kevin Li of Ridge dropped in the semi-final round. Other ranked competitors dropped in quarter-finals. These included #2 Theodore Gercken of the College Preparatory School (CA), #7 Taylor Burris of the Potomac School (VA), #13 Isaiah Sohn of Redlands High School (CA), #18 Tyler Crivella of Seven Lakes High School (TX), and #20 Anastasia Koch of Eagan High School (MN).
This year’s TOC is the first to be awarded third tier points in the National Points Race. McDade will receive 100 points for his victory while all competitors who reached elimination rounds will earn points.
Here were the results of the 2023 University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Pierce McDade (The University School, Illinois)
2nd: Gordy Sun (The Harker School, California)
3rd: Sruti Peddi (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
4th: Amy Cao (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
5th: Sumedh Seetharam (Scottsdale Preparatory Academy, Arizona)
6th: Rohit Vakkalagadda (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
*Joy Hu (The Harker School, California)
*Chloe Leng (The Hawken School, Ohio)
*Kevin Li (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Xavier Ramirez (Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School, Pennsylvania)
*Charlotte Reitman (The University School, Florida)
Quarter-Finalists
*Taylor Burris (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Tyler Crivella (Seven Lakes High School, Texas)
*Melinda Deng (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Riya Devroy (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Theodore Gercken (The College Preparatory School, California)
*Aparna Iyer (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Anastasia Koch (Eagan High School, Minnesota)
*Aidan Marks (Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Minnesota)
*Francis Olakangil (Bellarmine College Preparatory, Califonria)
*Isaiah Sohn (Redlands High School, California)
*Evelyn Wang (Southern Lehigh High School, Pennsylvania)
*Robert Zhang (Elkins High School, Texas)
Extemp Central thanks the University of Kentucky for putting the results of the tournament online.