The season’s third National Points Race tournament took place last weekend in New York City when the Bronx High School of Science hosted its annual New York City Invitational. 53 extempers attended this year’s competition, which was won by Eshaal Ubaid of Stuyvesant High School (NY).
The tournament was cumulative from preliminary rounds through the final round, which cost #5 Brandon Cheng of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA) a victory. Ubaid won the cumulative assessment of the tournament by one rank but Cheng won the final round by five ranks.
This is the second runner-up finish for Cheng at a National Points Race tournament this season as he finished runner-up at the University of Kentucky National Speech and Debate Season Opener last month.
Third place was earned by Charlotte Reitman of the University School (FL), who finished two ranks behind Ubaid. Reitman was one of the top seeds after preliminary rounds. She finished 18th in the National Points Race last season and this was her first National Points Race earning performance of the year.
Lishore Kumar of Tumball Memorial High School (TX) finished fourth and Valerie Gu of Milton Academy (MA) placed fifth. Kumar finished ahead of Gu by one rank.
#8 Akshaya Karanam of Mount Saint Mary Academy (NJ), who finished sixth at the Yale Invitational, took the same placing at this tournament.
Since the New York City Invitational was a fifth tier event, all of the extempers that reached the final round earned points. Ubaid earns 40 points for winning.
An update to the National Points Race will occur after the Florida Blue Key as New York City Invitational produced little movement in the standings.
Here are the results of the 2023 New York City Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Eshaal Ubaid (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
2nd: Brandon Cheng (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
3rd: Charlotte Reitman (The University School, Florida)
4th: Lishore Kumar (Tomball Memorial High School, Texas)
5th: Valerie Gu (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
6th: Akshaya Karanam (Mount Saint Mary Academy, New Jersey)
Semi-Finalists
*Safina Abramova (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*Samanatha Berk (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*Claire Chen (Westridge School, California)
*Luke Chung (Pine Creek High School, Colorado)
*Daphne Kalir-Starr (The College Preparatory School, California)
*Brooke Klausner (Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York)
*Kai Lai (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Celine Li (Westridge School, California)
*Anish Mehta (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Aleksey Olkhovenko (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Kajal Parmar (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
*Sven Stumbauer (Christopher Columbus High School, Florida)
*Nathan Thomas (La Salle High School, Pennsylvania)
Extemp Central thanks the Bronx High School of Science for putting the results of the tournament online.