239 extempers made up the largest field of a National Points Race this season when Harvard University hosted its annual National Speech and Debate Tournament on February 17-20 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a result of the high number of entries, the tournament was a second tier event.
#1 Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) won the championship in commanding fashion, earning a six-rank final round victory that saw her earn four of the five available first place ranks. It is Peddi’s first National Points Race title this year after she made four previous final round appearances. Her victory marks the second consecutive time that an Arizona extemper has won Harvard as McKinley Paltzik won the title last season. And the 150 points she earned with this victory will enlarge her National Points Race lead.
Peddi won a final round against three other National Points Race winners. Second place was earned by #11 Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School (TX), who won the United States Extemp half of the University of Texas Longhorn Classic in December. Haider swept up a majority of the second place ranks in the final round and was five ranks clear of the rest of the competition.
George Mason University Patriot Games winner Siri Ural of Shrewsbury High School (MA) earned a third place ranking, three ranks ahead of #18 Taylor Burris of the Potomac School (VA) and four ranks ahead of Stanford International Extemp winner #2 Brandon Cheng of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA). Burris and Cheng were separated by a mere rank for fourth place. Burris made her third National Points Race final round of the season while Cheng made his fifth.
Paul Fertig of Mounds Park Academy (MN) finished sixth, reaching a National Points Race final round for the second time this season. Fertig also finished sixth at the Apple Valley Minneapple Speech Tournament two weeks before Harvard.
While the final round featured a good number of previous winners this season, many ranked extempers were found in earlier elimination rounds and will earn National Points Race points. #12 Skyler Burrus of the American Heritage School – Palm Beach (FL) and #14 Kate Liu of Plano East High School (TX) made semi-finals, Glenbrooks champion #6 Lishore Kumar of Tomball Memorial High School (TX) and #25 Ishika Kothari of Plano East reached quarter-finals, and #3 Robert Zhang of Elkins High School (TX) qualified for octa-finals.
Due to the large number of competitors at Harvard, a few ranked competitors missed qualifying for elimination rounds. These included #10 Amy Cao of Ridge High School (NJ) and #19 Ronak Patel of American Heritage School – Broward (FL).
Here are the results of the 2024 Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Sruti Peddi (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
2nd: Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
3rd: Siri Ural (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
4th: Taylor Burris (The Potomac School, Virginia)
5th: Brandon Cheng (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
6th: Paul Fertig (Mounds Park Academy, Minnesota)
Semi-Finalists
*Anthony Babu (Concord-Carlisle High School, Massachusetts)
*Skyler Burrus (American Heritage School – Palm Beach, Florida)
*Rehan Buvvaji (Shepton High School, Texas)
*John Germak (Regis High School, New York)
*Kate Liu (Plano East Senior High School, Texas)
*Nick Pienkos (Marquette University High School, Wisconsin)
Quarter-Finalists
*Melinda Deng (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Maya Hay (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
*Daniela Holden (Berkeley Carroll School, New York)
*Ishika Kothari (Plano East Senior High School, Texas)
*Kai Li (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Lishore Kumar (Tomball Memorial High School, Texas)
*Alexandre Morei (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Roshan Shivnani (Shepton High School, Texas)
*Param Thakkar (Eagan High School, Minnesota)
*Eshaal Ubaid (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Aanya Venkat (Arizona Preparatory Academy, Arizona)
*Abraham Zhang (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
Octa-Finalists
*Jack Aaron (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Vishnu Angiras (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Samantha Berk (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*Gowri Biju (Hamilton High School, Arizona)
*Vincent Caporella (Cardinal Gibbons High School, Florida)
*John Cooper (Tuloso-Midway High School, Texas)
*Sebastian Cunto (Regis High School, New York)
*Daniel Evans (Petal High School, Mississippi)
*Aayushi Garg (Granada Hills Charter School, California)
*Max Goldberg (Park City High School, Utah)
*Max Goldstein (Syosset High School, New York)
*Valerie Gu (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*Kasim Khapra (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Jaylon Ma (Tompkins High School, Texas)
*Fiona MacDonald (Denver East High School, Colorado)
*Eduardo Michelsen (Ransom Everglades High School, Florida)
*Aleksey Olkhovenko (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Henry Perduto (Regis High School, New York)
*Navya Raju (Ridge High School, New York)
*Tea Shouldice (Half Hollow Hills High School East, New York)
*Siddharth Sudhakar (Nova High School, Florida)
*Vanessa Wu (Bronx High School of Science, New York)
*Robert Zhang (Elkins High School, Texas)
*Felicia Zhongzhang (Bronx High School of Science, New York)
Extemp Central thanks Harvard University for putting the results of the tournament online.