The West Coast swing of the National Points Race began last weekend at James Logan High School in Union City, California. The school’s James Logan MLK Invitational attracted a wide variety of California schools, with a few Texas extempers mixed in.
The tournament split extempers into International and United States Extemp categories. International Extemp was dominated by Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA), which had three of the seven finalists. Teammates Abhijay Rana and Shamit D’Souza tied for first with an all-tournament cumulative score of 39 ranks. They also tied with a composite score of 15 in finals. When tiebreakers were applied, Rana defeated D’Souza to win the championship.
Isaiah Sohn of Redlands High School (CA) was runner-up last year at the MLK in International Extemp. This year he finished third, two ranks back of Rana and D’Souza.
The battle for fourth place was tightly contested by Ali Malik of Monta Vista High School (CA), Fiona Yan of the Harker School (CA), and Ellie Sohn of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA). Each extemper was separated by only one cumulative rank, with Malik placing fourth, Yan fifth, and Sohn sixth.
United States Extemp was not as closely contested as its global counterpart. Evelyn Tsoi of Velasquez Academy (CA) claimed a six-rank victory over Kevin Lu of Bellarmine College Preparatory, winning the final round by that same margin.
Third place was taken by Sovia Villagra of Gabrielino High School (CA), who was ten ranks back of Tsoi.
The fight for fourth place was also fierce in United States Extemp. Yan, the only extemper to final in both categories, won the spot over Aadi Chauhan of Bellarmine College Preparatory.
While none of the finalists at the MLK Invitational were ranked in the top 25, there were a few extempers in the field that just missed out on claiming points. #4 Brandon Cheng of Flintridge was eliminated in the quarter-final round of International Extemp and #9 Katherine Lee of Plano West Senior High School (TX) went out in the quarter-final round of United States Extemp.
This was the first year that the MLK Invitational counts as a fourth tier tournament in the National Points Race. All of the competitors who reached the semi-final and final rounds will receive credit in the standings. To prevent double counting, an extemper’s top finish will count toward this year’s standings.
Here are the results of the 2024 James Logan MLK Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
International Extemp
Champion: Abhijay Rana (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
2nd: Shamit D’Souza (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
3rd: Isaiah Sohn (Redlands High School, California)
4th: Ali Malik (Monta Vista High School, California)
5th: Fiona Yan (The Harker School, California)
6th: Ellie Sohn (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
7th: Vedant Hathalia (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Robert Fields (The Harker School, California)
*Aarav Garai (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Rishabh Goel (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Esthem Gulcu (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Thomas Guo (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Aaron He (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Dhruv Mallick (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
Quarter-Finalists
*Neil Alappatt (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Akshaj Bozza (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Luke Canabou (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Shreyas Chatterjee (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Brandon Cheng (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
*Kaaviya Shenbaharaman (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Aniruddha Janakiraman (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Eric Ouyang (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Andres Ryan (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Olivia Tan (Westridge High School, California)
*Anoushka Vijay (Notre Dame High School – San Jose, California)
*Kallie Wang (The Harker School, California)
United States Extemp
Champion: Evelyn Tsoi (Velasquez Academy, California)
2nd: Kevin Lu (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
3rd: Sovia Villagra (Gabrielino High School, California)
4th: Fiona Yan (The Harker School, California)
5th: Aadi Chauhan (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
6th: Wayne Lu (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
7th: Khedaar Kashyap (Leland High School, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Arnav Aggarwal (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Austin Bauman (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Marco Cisneros-Farber (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Ali Malik (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Sophia Pu (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Sage Salmon Sachiko Simpson-Castaneda (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Andrew Zhang (Acalanes High School, California)
Quarter-Finalists
*Riya Bharath (The Harker School, California)
*Shreyas Chakravarty (The Harker School, California)
*Garrison Chan (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Samarjit Deshmukh (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Roy Jeong (Henry M. Gunn High School, California)
*Daphne Kalir-Starr (The College Preparatory School, California)
*Katherine Lee (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Natalia San Lucas (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Samuel Ma (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Chaith Mittal (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Kashish Priyam (The Harker School, California)
*Niranjana Sankar (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Daksh Sharma (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Aniket Warty (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
Extemp Central thanks James Logan High School for putting the results of the tournament online.