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.
For the first time this year there is significant separation in the National Points Race standings. Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) won her first National Points Race title of the season at Harvard, earning 150 points and enlarging her lead to 121 points over Brandon Cheng of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA). Cheng was also in the Harvard final and finished fifth. Peddi and Cheng have each reached five National Points Race tournament final rounds this season and each has four top three finishes to their credit and one victory. Peddi’s best results have happened at higher tier events, though, which has given her the lead.
Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School (TX) was runner-up at Harvard, moving from eleventh to fourth place in the new standings after receiving 120 points for that finish.
Harvard also helped propel Siri Ural of Shrewsbury High School (MA) into the top ten. Ural took third and moved from an unranked position into the tenth spot.
Austin Bauman of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) won the California Invitational and entered the top 25 for the first time this season. Bauman now resides in sixteenth, a mere one point ahead of Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL).
While the California Invitational helped Bauman crack the top 25, it also helped a couple of extempers move higher into the top ten. Evelyn Tsoi of Velasquez Academy (CA) was runner-up and moved from thirteenth to seventh. Abhijay Rana of Bellarmine finished third at Berkeley and fifteenth to ninth.
All of the top ten extempers except for Robert Zhang of Elkins High School (TX), who is ranked third, have won a National Points Race event this season. That shows how split this year’s race has been.
Other moves within the top 25 included Harvard finalist Taylor Burris of the Potomac School (VA) climbing six spots from eighteenth to twelfth and Harvard quarter-finalist Ishika Kothari of Plano East Senior High School (TX) moving four spots from twenty-fifth to twenty-first.
New names joining this edition of the top 25 include Stanford United States Extemp winner Matthew Abrams of George Washington High School (CO), Berkeley quarter-finalist Isaiah Sohn of Redlands High School (CA), New York City Invitational winner and Harvard quarter-finalist Eshaal Ubaid of Stuyvesant High School (NY), and Harvard finalist Paul Fertig of Mounds Park Academy (MN).
The movement caused by Harvard and the California Invitational meant that extempers who did not attend or score enough points at those competitions fell significantly in the rankings. Ronak Patel of American Heritage School – Broward (FL), Shamit D’Souza and Kevin Lu of Bellarmine, Noah Darby of St. Thomas More Catholic High School (LA), Joy Hu of the Harker School (CA), and Claire Han of Munster High School (IN) all exited the top 25.
The National Points Race takes the next month and a half off while state post-season events take place. The post-season phase of the competition begins at the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC) in late April. This year’s UK TOC will be a third tier tournament, equivalent to the Extemp TOC, and will award points to all finalists, semi-finalists, and quarter-finalists. The winner will also receive 100 points.
Here are the standings of the 2023-2024 National Points Race after the Harvard National Speech & Debate Tournament and the California Invitational:
| RANK | NAME | SCHOOL | POINTS |
| 1 | Sruti Peddi | BASIS Scottsdale (Scottsdale, AZ) | 424 |
| 2 | Brandon Cheng | Flintridge Preparatory School (Flintridge, CA) | 303 |
| 3 | Robert Zhang | Elkins HS (Missouri City, TX) | 251 |
| 4 | Waleed Haider | Hendrickson HS (Pflugerville, TX) | 220 |
| 5 | April Zhang | Neuqua Valley HS (Napierville, IL) | 210 |
| 6 | Lishore Kumar | Tomball Memorial HS (Harris County, TX) | 193 |
| 7 | Evelyn Tsoi | Velasquez Academy (Los Angeles, CA) | 171 |
| 8 | Katherine Lee | Plano West Senior HS (Plano, TX) | 170 |
| 9 | Abhijay Rana | Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) | 155 |
| 10 | Siri Ural | Shrewsbury HS (Shrewsbury, MA) | 145 |
| 11 | Rohit Vakkalagadda | Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) | 145 |
| 12 | Taylor Burris | The Potomac School (McLean, VA) | 143 |
| 13 | Skyler Burrus | American Heritage School-Palm Beach (Delray Beach, FL) | 131 |
| 14 | Kate Liu | Plano East Senior HS (Plano, TX) | 124 |
| 15 | Tyler Crivella | Seven Lakes HS (Katy, TX) | 120 |
| 16 | Austin Bauman | Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) | 118 |
| 17 | Charlotte Reitman | NSU University School (Fort Lauderdale, FL) | 117 |
| 18 | Amy Cao | Ridge HS (Somerset County, NJ) | 110 |
| 19 | Ellie Sohn | Flintridge Preparatory School (Flintridge, CA) | 105 |
| 20 | Meghana Kunapareddy | Tompkins HS (Katy, TX) | 75 |
| 21 | Ishika Kothari | Plano East Senior HS (Plano, TX) | 73 |
| 22 | Matthew Abrams | George Washington HS (Denver, CO) | 65 |
| 23 | Isaiah Sohn | Redlands HS (Redlands, CA) | 64 |
| 24 | Eshaal Ubaid | Stuyvesant HS (New York, NY) | 63 |
| 25 | Paul Fertig | Mounds Park Academy (St. Paul, MN) | 63 |
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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 (The 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.):
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.