When Harvard held its big national circuit event two weeks ago, the University of California-Berkeley was holding its own, returning to in-person competition after two years of having the tournament take place in a virtual environment.
In the cumulative tournament, Rohit Vakkalagadda of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) emerged as the winner, outlasting a field of 138 competitors. Vakkalagadda’s victory was narrow as he defeated Nirja Trivedi of Westview High School (CA) by two ranks.
Vakkalagadda’s victory marks the third time in the last five years that Bellarmine College Preparatory has won the event. The last Bellarmine extemper to win was Kush Narang, who captured the 2020 title.
Trivedi won the tournament’s final round, where the top four competitors were separated by one rank. #25 Isaiah Sohn of Redlands High School (CA) placed third and Sophia Gerrans of George Washington High School (CO) finished fourth. Gerrans was the only non-California extemper to make it to the championship round of competition.
In terms of cumulative ranks, which Berkeley tabulates from preliminary rounds until finals, Gordy Sun of the Harker School (CA) finished a mere rank behind Gerrans. Six ranks back of Sun was sixth place finisher Ali Malik of Monta Vista High School (CA). Aadi Chauhan of Bellarmine took seventh.
Due to the large field, the California Invitational broke to octafinals, so competitors reaching the final round had to survive three elimination rounds to make the top seven. #22 Francis Olakangil of Bellarmine made a charge into quarter-finals but dropped there. The same was true of #25 Kashish Priyam of the Harker School. Stanford United States Extemp winner and 2021 California Invitational Champion Michelle Jin of the Harker School dropped in preliminary rounds.
Since the California Invitational is a third tier National Points Race competition, Vakkalagadda will receive 100 points for his victory. Since only the top six in a final round receive finalist points, Chauhan will receive the same points as a semi-finalist for being seventh.
All quarter-finalists at the tournament earned a bid leg to the 2023 Extemp TOC at Northwestern University. The same is true for the University of Kentucky TOC in April.
Here were the results of the 2023 California Invitational at Berkeley (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Rohit Vakkalagadda (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
2nd: Nirja Trivedi (Westview High School, California)
3rd: Isaiah Sohn (Redlands High School, California)
4th: Sophia Gerrans (George Washington High School, Colorado)
5th: Gordy Sun (The Harker School, California)
6th: Ali Malik (Monta Vista High School, California)
7th: Aadi Chauhan (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Michelle Giovinazzo (Miramonte High School, California)
*Dhruv Javangula (Clovis North High School, California)
*Annabelle Katz (Fairview High School, Colorado)
*Siya Mishra (Granite Bay High School, California)
*Fiona Yan (The Harker School, California)
*Lindsey Zhao (Clark High School, Texas)
Quarter-Finalists
*Simran Bhattacharya (West High School, California)
*Maximilian Guo (BASIS Independent – Silicon Valley, California)
*Xinyu Guo (Leland High School, California)
*Joy Hu (The Harker School, California)
*Khedaar Kashyap (Leland High School, California)
*Julia Mathew (Mira Loma High School, California)
*Francis Olakangil (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Katherine Peckham (Westwood High School, Texas)
*Kashish Priyam (The Harker School, California)
*Darya Rtova (La Salle College Preparatory, California)
*Brandon Sandlin (Cypress Woods High School, Texas)
*Aditi Singh (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
*Arnav Sunil (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
Octa-Finalists
*Brandon Anderson (Green Valley High School, Nevada)
*Ethan Boneh (Palo Alto High School, California)
*Aria Chadha (The Harker School, California)
*Daniel Chen (The Harker School, California)
*Ethan Guan (The Harker School, California)
*Robert Fields (The Harker School, California)
*Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
*Jackson Harper (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
*Zane Hensley (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Manhua Kim (Plano Senior High School, Texas)
*Joshua Kwong (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Connor Lam (Foothill High School, California)
*Carrie Lange (Able2Shine Challenge School, California)
*Cindy Lin (Taipei American School, Taiwan)
*Jonathan Liu (Palo Alto High School, California)
*Anirudh Mani (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Jason Shim (The Harker School, California)
*Carder Squirrell (Fairview High School, Colorado)
*Olivia Tan (Westridge High School, California)
*Lexie Toshav (Isidore Newman School, Louisiana)
*Nadia Turner (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
*Evan Wang (The Nueva School, California)
Extemp Central thanks the University of California-Berkeley for putting the results of the tournament online.