In the extemporaneous speaking community there are four “major” tournaments throughout the calendar year. These tournaments are the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin, the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC), the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) Grand National Tournament, and the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament. Winning all of these tournaments in one calendar year accomplishes a “grand slam” like in tennis or golf. This has been done twice. First by Kevin Troy of Eagan High School (Minnesota) in 2005 and the second time by McKinley Paltzik of Phoenix Country Day School (Arizona) in 2023. Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (Iowa) holds the major championship record, winning seven titles between 2012 and 2014.
Here is a listing of extemporaneous speaking’s major champions. The following list only begins in 2003 because that is when the Extemp TOC was first held and became the last part of the grand slam.
*Red signifies an active competitor
7 Majors:
*Lily Nellans (’14 MBA, ’14 TOC, ’13 MBA, ’13 TOC, ’12 MBA, ’12 TOC, ’12 CFL)
6 Majors:
*McKinley Paltzik (’23 MBA, ’23 TOC, ’23 CFL, ’23 NSDA, ’22 MBA, ’22 NSDA)
*Kevin Troy (’05 MBA, ’05 TOC, ’05 CFL, ’05 NSDA, ’04 TOC, ’03 NSDA)
4 Majors:
*Jacqueline Wei (’19 MBA, ’19 TOC, ’19 NSDA, ’18 NSDA)
3 Majors:
*Dylan Slinger (’11 CFL, ’11 NSDA, ’10 CFL)
*Alex Stephenson (’07 TOC, ’07 NSDA, ’06 MBA)
2 Majors:
*Stacey Chen (’09 TOC, ’09 NSDA)
*Becca Goldstein (’08 MBA, ’08 NSDA)
*James P. Hohmann (’05 NSDA, ’04 NSDA)
*Nikhil Ramaswamy (’18 MBA, ’18 TOC)
*Akshar Rambachan (’08 CFL, ’08 NSDA)
*Arel Rende (’14 NSDA, ’13 NSDA)
*Marshall Sloane (’17 MBA, ’16 NSDA)
*Jacob Thompson (’17 NSDA, ’17 TOC)
*Josh Wartel (’15 MBA, ’15 TOC)
*Nabeel Zewail (’11 MBA, ’10 TOC)
1 Major:
*Uzair Alpial (’18 NSDA)
*Brian Anderson (’15 NSDA)
*Peter Alisky (’22 NSDA)
*Matt Arons (’09 MBA)
*Reid Bagwell (’08 TOC)
*Jacob Baker (’10 NSDA)
*Vaikunth Balaji (’16 MBA)
*Josh Bone (’04 MBA)
*Micah Cash (’16 NSDA)
*Ben Constine (’11 TOC)
*Monica Coscia (’14 CFL)
*Tex Dawson (’07 MBA)
*Alex Draime (’09 CFL)
*Mukta Dharmapurikar (’21 TOC)
*Tyler Fabbri (’10 NSDA)
*Gabe Ferrante (’13 CFL)
*Daniel Hemel (’03 NSDA)
*James Gao (’20 NSDA)
*Justin Graham (’16 CFL)
*Laurel Holley (’21 NSDA)
*Jack Hsiao (’03 TOC)
*Dillon Huff (’10 MBA)
*Daniel Kind (’22 CFL)
*David Kumbroch (’07 NSDA)
*Evan Larson (’09 NSDA)
*Kyle Letterer (’23 NSDA)
*Nathan Leys (’13 NSDA)
*Yijia Liang (’15 CFL)
*Mo Marks (’20 MBA)
*William McDonald (’12 NSDA)
*Jared Odessky (’12 NSDA)
*Rene Otero (’19 NSDA)
*Courtney Otto (’04 CFL)
*Pranav Pattatathunaduvil (’21 NSDA)
*Ashesh Rambachan (’12 NSDA)
*Ishanaa N. Rambachan (’04 NSDA)
*Akshay Rao (’07 CFL)
*Daniel Rauch (’06 TOC)
*Cameron Roberts (’22 TOC)
*Spencer Rockwell (’06 NSDA)
*Kay Rollins (’21 MBA)
*Connor Rothschild (’17 NSDA)
*Miles Saffran (’14 NSDA)
*Jackson Seegal (’18 CFL)
*Samhitha Sunkara (’17 CFL)
*David Tannenwald (’03 MBA)
*Gautam Thapar (’06 CFL)
*Ananth Veluvali (’21 CFL)
*Greg Wagman (’03 CFL)
*Angela Wang (’20 NSDA)
*Colin West (’06 NSDA)
*Brian Xu (’16 TOC)
*Brian Yu (’15 NSDA)
*April Zhang (’24 MBA)
*Brian Zheng (’19 CFL)
Season Grand Slam Champions:
*Kevin Troy (Eagan High School, Minnesota) – 2005
*McKinley Paltzik (Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona) – 2023
Career Grand Slam Winners:
*McKinley Paltzik (Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona)
*Kevin Troy (Eagan High School, Minnesota)