by Logan Scisco
The Extemp Central National Points Race is a competition designed to reward extempers for placing high at selected national circuit competitions throughout the year. Tournaments are placed into five tiers based on their level of prestige and each tier awards a different amount of points towards elimination round participants. To find out what point value tournaments are worth, click here. At the end of the season, the winner of the National Points Race receives a customary glass trophy recognizing their achievement courtesy of Extemp Central.
Last week’s University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions adjusted some of the placings in the top five of the National Points Race but Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ), who did not attend the event, remains in a commanding lead. Brandon Cheng of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA) missed an opportunity to significantly close the gap at UK, although he did come 15 points closer to Peddi after making quarter-finals.
Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL) earned 100 points for her victory at the TOC. That resulted in her vaulting from seventeenth to fifth in the latest standings.
Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School (TX) was runner-up at the TOC and improved his position in the top five by one spot. Haider is now sitting in third, a mere 13 points behind Cheng for second place.
Other TOC finalists Tyler Crivella of Seven Lakes High School (TX), Ellie Sohn of Flintridge Preparatory School, and Arya Goyal of Scarsdale High School (NY) improved their position as well. Crivella, who has been in three National Points Race final rounds this year, moved from fifteenth to eleventh and Sohn, who has been in four National Points Race final rounds, moved from nineteenth to fourteenth. Goyal cracks the top 25 for the first time this year, ranked twenty-fifth.
Nick Pienkos of Marquette University High School (WI), who placed third at the TOC, makes his debut in the top 25 for the first time this season. He is ranked twentieth.
Some TOC participants received points for semi-final and quarter-final placings, allowing them to tread water or move up against competitors who did not make the trip to Lexington. Abhijay Rana of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) moved up one spot from ninth to eighth, Taylor Burris of the Potomac School (VA) remains in twelfth, Austin Bauman of Bellarmine remains in sixteenth, and Ronak Patel of American Heritage School – Broward (FL) and Kevin Lu of Bellarmine return to the top 25 in twenty-first and twenty-second place, respectively.
Extempers who dropped out of the top 25 following the TOC were Isaiah Sohn of Redlands High School (CA), Eshaal Ubaid of Stuyvesant High School (NY), and Paul Fertig of Mounds Park Academy (MN).
There are only three tournaments remaining in this year’s National Points Race. The next big event happens this weekend at Northwestern University of their Tournament of Champions of Extemporaneous Speaking. The tournament is another third tier competition, so the winner will receive 100 points and all competitors reaching quarter-finals and beyond will receive points.
Here are the standings of the 2023-2024 National Points Race after the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions:
RANK | NAME | SCHOOL | POINTS |
1 | Sruti Peddi | BASIS Scottsdale (Scottsdale, AZ) | 424 |
2 | Brandon Cheng | Flintridge Preparatory School (Flintridge, CA) | 318 |
3 | Waleed Haider | Hendrickson HS (Pflugerville, TX) | 305 |
4 | Robert Zhang | Elkins HS (Missouri City, TX) | 251 |
5 | Charlotte Reitman | NSU University School (Fort Lauderdale, FL) | 217 |
6 | April Zhang | Neuqua Valley HS (Napierville, IL) | 210 |
7 | Lishore Kumar | Tomball Memorial HS (Harris County, TX) | 193 |
8 | Abhijay Rana | Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) | 180 |
9 | Evelyn Tsoi | Velasquez Academy (Los Angeles, CA) | 171 |
10 | Katherine Lee | Plano West Senior HS (Plano, TX) | 170 |
11 | Tyler Crivella | Seven Lakes HS (Katy, TX) | 170 |
12 | Taylor Burris | The Potomac School (McLean, VA) | 158 |
13 | Siri Ural | Shrewsbury HS (Shrewsbury, MA) | 145 |
14 | Ellie Sohn | Flintridge Preparatory School (Flintridge, CA) | 145 |
15 | Rohit Vakkalagadda | Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) | 145 |
16 | Austin Bauman | Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) | 133 |
17 | Skyler Burrus | American Heritage School-Palm Beach (Delray Beach, FL) | 131 |
18 | Kate Liu | Plano East Senior HS (Plano, TX) | 124 |
19 | Amy Cao | Ridge HS (Somerset County, NJ) | 110 |
20 | Nick Pienkos | Marquette University HS (Marquette, WI) | 108 |
21 | Ronak Patel | American Heritage School – Broward (Plantation, FL) | 78 |
22 | Kevin Lu | Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) | 75 |
23 | Meghana Kunapareddy | Tompkins HS (Katy, TX) | 75 |
24 | Ishika Kothari | Plano East Senior HS (Plano, TX) | 73 |
25 | Arya Goyal | Scarsdale HS (Scarsdale, NY) | 66 |
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2023-2024 National Points Race Tournaments w/Tier, Points Awarded to the Winner, and Champion
National Speech and Debate Season Opener Hosted by UK (5th Tier, 40 pts.):
Amy Cao (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
Yale University Invitational (4th Tier, 70 pts.):
Amy Cao (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
New York City Invitational (5th Tier, 40 pts.):
Eshaal Ubaid (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
The Florida Blue Key (5th Tier, 40 pts.):
Charlotte Reitman (NSU University School, Florida)
The Glenbrooks (3rd Tier, 100 pts.):
Lishore Kumar (Tomball Memorial High School, Texas)
George Mason University Patriot Games (5th Tier, 40 pts.):
Siri Ural (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
University of Texas-Longhorn Classic (3rd Tier, 100 pts.):
Katherine Lee (Plano West Senior High School, Texas) & Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin (2nd Tier, 150 pts.):
April Zhang (Neuqua Valley High School, Illinois)
James Logan MLK Invitational (4th Tier, 70 pts.):
Abhijay Rana (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California) & Evelyn Tsoi (Velasquez Academy, California)
The Barkley Forum (4th Tier, 70 pts.):
Katherine Lee (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
The Apple Valley Minneapple (5th Tier, 40 pts.):
Eunsol Lee (Woodbury High School, Minnesota) & Nick Zylstra (Eastview High School, Minnesota)
The Stanford Invitational (5th Tier, 40 pts.):
Brandon Cheng (Flintridge Preparatory School, California) & Matthew Abrams (George Washington High School, Colorado)
Harvard National High School Invitational (2nd Tier, 150 pts.):
Sruti Peddi (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
The California Invitational (3rd Tier, 100 pts.):
Austin Bauman (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (3rd Tier, 100 pts.):
Charlotte Reitman (NSU University School, Florida)
The Extemp Tournament of Champions (3rd Tier, 100 pts.):
Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament (2nd Tier, 150 pts.):
National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament–International Extemp (1st Tier, 200/250 pts.):
National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament–United States Extemp (1st Tier, 200/250 pts.):
National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament International Extemp Final Round Winner (1st Tier, 40/50 pts.):
National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament U.S. Extemp Final Round Winner (1st Tier, 40/50 pts.):
2022-2023 National Points Race Final Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
2021-2022 National Points Race Final Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
2015-2016 National Points Race Final Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
2014-2015 National Points Race Final Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
2011-2012 National Points Race Final Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Team Standings
2010-2011 National Points Race Final Standings:
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Team Standings
2009-2010 National Points Race Final Standings:
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Team Standings
2008-2009 National Points Race Final Standings:
Spreadsheet of Final Individual Standings
Spreadsheet of Final Team Standings
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I just wanted to let you know the Stanford Tournament has not been canceled. It’s been renamed the Palm Classic and is inheriting its TOC, ETOC, and NIETOC bids. As such, is there a reason it’s not inheriting its points race points?
We weren’t aware of the change! We will make sure to make this change, so the tournament will be added into the National Points Race this week!
Hi Logan, is there a reason the UPenn tournament, with 75 entries, is not included in the points race?
For a long time UPenn ran opposite of Harvard and its field was relatively weak. It was part of the first National Points Race but was removed when the tournament started going the same weekend as Harvard/Cal and the quality of its field became too poor to warrant points. Another reason is that the National Points Race is pretty heavy on East Coast tournaments already. For the sake of expansion, we’d also prefer adding events in the Midwest or West Coast. However, after each season the National Points Race undergoes some changes/revisions based on the results in 3 year cycles for tournaments, which can alter tiers or remove some tournaments entirely. So UPenn will get some consideration when that reevaluation is done in the offseason along with other tournaments like the NIETOC and such.
Hi there,
I wonder why points are not awarded to the 7th-place finisher in tournaments whose final rounds include seven participants. The information blurb for Tier 5 tournaments states the following:
Fifth tier tournaments are make-or-break affairs. Only those extempers who reach the final round will receive points.
If “extempers who reach the final round will receive points,” I think it is only fair that students who reach said round but place seventh should be awarded a commensurate number of points at tournaments that allow seven competitors to advance to finals, such as James Logan in California. Thank you for your consideration!
Hi Brandon, this is because if you look at the National Points Race calculations, points are only awarded for the top six. If tournaments opt to let seven or eight competitors into finals, that is their decision but to standardize how points are awarded across tournaments we will only award finalist points for the top six. This is because nearly every circuit tournament in the country only breaks to a final round of six competitors.
Hi –
Thanks for running such a detailed and thorough website!
I was wondering if you plan on including Villiger and Princeton in the national points race next year.
This year, Villiger received 54 entries. That was more than the Season Opener, the NYC Invitational, and about the same as GMU.
Princeton received 87 entries. That was more all the tournaments listed above, as well as Blue Key. It was about the same as the Longhorn Classic.
I am asking because both Villiger and Princeton are cheaper for me to attend (than the alternatives, Glenbrooks and GMU), but I would consider the others if points race calculations stay the same as I plan out my travel for next year.
Thank you so much!
Thanks for the question. While I always consider adding tournaments, I probably will not add Villiger and probably not for Princeton. Both are good tournaments for sure and have good histories but a big reason not to include them is that the Northeast already has three National Points Race tournaments (Yale, NYC, and Harvard). Putting more there starts to imbalance things geographically, moreso because Yale and Harvard are fourth and second tier contests. Also, when tournaments are held sort of matters too as NYC happens earlier in October but Princeton’s weekend also has GMU and the Longhorn Classic. I like to have a spread of tournaments in the calculations rather than firing off tons of them in a given weekend.
At the end of the year, I’ll look over tab sheets and evaluate. There could be a case for doing something with Princeton, and it is something that has been considered, but it would also require finding some other balance of tournaments for the Midwest, West Coast, and South.
Thank you so much for the detailed and thorough response!
Hi there!
I just noticed that Sunvite used to be a tier-4 tournament, but was dropped from the NPR due to running it against MBA. However, as it is once again the week after MBA, will it be returned to the NPR? I did not personally attend, but I did notice that the field had expanded from last year and will likely grow in future years.
Thank you for your time!
Best,
Robert Zhang
Hi Robert,
I’m not sure if I’ll put Sunvitational back on for the time being since there’s already a wider regional tournament in January with the Barkley Forum. It’s also a big of a crapshoot if its date will continue to mess with MBA so that makes it a bit tricky. I go back and “audit” tournaments at the end of the year and try to think of new inclusions, shifts, etc. so it’ll be considered.