Amy Cao of Ridge High School (NJ) won her second consecutive national circuit title of the year, winning the cumulative tournament by four ranks over April Zhang of Neuqua Valley High School (IL). Zhang captured two ones in the final round but a fourth and fifth place rank cost her the title.
This is the third time that Ridge High School has won the Yale extemp title in the last ten years. James Gao won it for the school in 2019. That was the last Yale title won by an extemper other than McKinley Paltzik, who won three straight titles between 2020 and 2022.
Cao’s win is also the first time that an extemper has won both season opening national circuit tournaments since Miles Saffran of Trinity Preparatory School (FL). In 2013 Saffran won the Wake Forest National Early Bird and Yale in a campaign that ended with a national championship in International Extemp at NSDA Nationals.
Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) reached her second national circuit final round of the season, placing third, eight ranks behind Cao and four behind Zhang. Peddi was a fourth place finisher at the UK National Speech and Debate Season Opener last month.
Shrewsbury High School had two extempers reach the final round. Vishnu Angiras placed fourth and Vasu Lakshmanan finished fifth. Angiras and Lakshmanan tied with a 42 composite score but Angiras did two ranks better in the final round.
The sixth place finisher was Akshaya Karanam of Mount Saint Mary’s Academy (NJ).
Siri Ural of Shrewsbury, who finished last season in the top 25 of the National Points Race after placing fifth at NSDA Nationals in International Extemp, was also in the field. Ural was eliminated in the octa-final round.
Since Yale is a fourth tier tournament in the National Points Race, all of the extempers that reached the semi-final round and beyond will earn points. The first standings will be posted by the end of the week.
Here are the results of the 2023 Yale Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Amy Cao (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
2nd: April Zhang (Neuqua Valley High School, Illinois)
3rd: Sruti Peddi (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
4th: Vishnu Angiras (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
5th: Vasu Lakshmanan (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
6th: Akshaya Karanam (Mount Saint Mary Academy, New Jersey)
Semi-Finalists
*Skyler Burrus (American Heritage School – Palm Beach, Florida)
*Arya Goyal (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Maximilian Guo (BASIS Independent Silicon Valley, California)
*Lucas Mejia-Fanjul (Regis High School, New York)
*Elizabeth Ovelil (Desert Vista High School, Arizona)
*Ronak Patel (American Heritage School – Broward, Florida)
Quarter-Finalists
*Anthony Babu (Concord Carlisle High School, Massachusetts)
*Luke Chung (Pine Creek High School, Colorado)
*Ashton Dolce (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
*Aradhya Goswami (Syosset High School, New York)
*Layden Kennedy (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Eduardo Michelsen (Ransom Everglades School, Florida)
*Iveena Mukherjee (Charter School of Wilmington, Delaware)
*Jasman Padam (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Kajal Parmar (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
*Navya Raju (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Tea Shouldice (Half Hollow Hills High School East, New York)
*Ella Witalec (The Laurel School, Ohio)
Octa-Finalists
*Advait Bhowmik (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Kamal Elbabaa (Lake Highland Preparatory, Florida)
*Kai Forbach (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Daniela Holden (Berkeley Carroll School, New York)
*Aparnya Iyer (Ridge High School, New York)
*Colin Jette (Regis High School, New York)
*Daphne Kalir-Starr (The College Preparatory School, California)
*Mabel Kim (Pine Creek High School, Colorado)
*Isabel Marangoni (Lake Highland Preparatory, Florida)
*Tarah McCann (Desert Vista High School, Arizona)
*Dylan McGinty (Regis High School, New York)
*Anish Mehta (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Zara Miller (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Henry Perduto (Regis High School, New York)
*Sophie Reynolds-Green (Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School, New York)
*Hannah Risin (Ransom Everglades School, Florida)
*Sol Rivera (The Hawken School, Ohio)
*Divij Sasidhar (The Hawken School, Ohio)
*Claire Sheeler (The Laurel School, Ohio)
*Tanush Talekar (Strath Haven High School, Pennsylvania)
*Siri Ural (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Sameer Wadhwa (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Noah Weintrob (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Alina Zaidi (Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, Florida)
Extemp Central thanks Yale University for putting the results of the tournament online.