The first major tournmament of the season, the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin, took place last weekend on the campus of Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. The tournament is one the most prestigious on the calendar as sixteen of the nation’s best extempers are invited to compete each year.
As expected, this year’s tournament went down to the wire. #13 April Zhang of Neuqua Valley High School High School (IL) became the first extemper from her state to win the Round Robin, defeating #3 Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) by two ranks. Peddi made a spirited charge over the last two rounds of the tournament, collecting four first place ranks from six judges. However, Zhang never earned a rank lower than a two over those last two rounds, blunting Peddi’s momentum.
It was the second National Points Race top six placing for Zhang this year after finishing runner-up at the Yale Invitational.
#17 Rohit Vakkalagadda of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) was the tournament’s third place finisher. After a rough start in the tournament, Vakkalagadda found his footing and tore through the last three rounds of the tournament with six first place ranks. He “picket fenced” his eighth and ninth rounds but was not able to do so in round ten. In the last round his cumulative score was eight ranks and that prevented him from winning the title.
Meghana Kunapareddy of Tompkins High School (TX) was unranked going into the Round Robin but will be after earning a fourth place finish. Kunapareddy tied Vakkalagadda’s cumulative score of 60 ranks at the end of the tournament but lost out on a standard deviation and reciprocal tiebreaker.
National Points Race leader Robert Zhang of Elkins High School (TX) took fifth, nestled in his own spot with 67 ranks between Kunapareddy and #4 Brandon Cheng of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA). Zhang finished three ranks ahead of Cheng.
What made this year’s Round Robin unique compared with past edition is that the top six was made up of extempers who did not place in the top six at the previous year’s tournament.
At the award’s ceremony, Dr. Steve Moss and Sandip Gupta, who have judged and assisted in prior Round Robins were recognized as honorary participants of the tournament. This is the first time that honor was bestowed.
April Zhang will earn 150 points for winning the season’s first major tournament. All of the extempers who placed in the top six, which were recognized at MBA’s award ceremony, will receive National Points Race points. Due to the fact that the old Round Robin rules advanced the top five to an Exhibition Round, the top five will receive credit for “finaling,” which could become useful in tiebreakers near the end of the season.
Here are the results of the 2024 Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin:
Champion: April Zhang (Neuqua Valley High School, Illinois)
2nd: Sruti Peddi (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
3rd: Rohit Vakkalagadda (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
4th: Meghana Kunapareddy (Tompkins High School, Texas)
5th: Robert Zhang (Elkins High School, Texas)
6th: Brandon Cheng (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
Participants
*Taylor Burris (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Amy Cao (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Tyler Crivella (Seven Lakes High School, Texas)
*Lishore Kumar (Tomball Memorial High School, Texas)
*Katherine Lee (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Kate Liu (Plano East Senior High School, Texas)
*Isabella Razdan (Lincoln East High School, Nebraska)
*Charlotte Reitman (The University School, Florida)
*Eshaal Ubaid (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Siri Ural (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
Extemp Central thanks MBA tournament director Adam Johnson for sending us the results.