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Justin Graham of Trinity Preparatory School (FL) wasted no time getting back to the top of the 2015-2016 National Points Race, winning the Wake Forest National Earlybird by four ranks over teammate Varun Bhatia. Graham led the standings for much of the second semester before he was overtaken at the last moment at NSDA Nationals by eventual winner Brian Anderson. Graham took three of the five available first place ranks in the final round.
Graham’s win is the second for Trinity Preparatory in three years. Miles Saffran won Wake Forest in 2013 en route to eventually winning the 2014 NSDA International Extemp National Championship.
As is usually true of Wake Forest, schools from Southern states were well-represented in elimination rounds. In fact, Justin Cooper of Scarsdale High School (NY), who took fifth place, was the only student from a non-Southern school to place in the top twelve.
The size of the field at Wake Forest means that all of the extempers that reached the final round will earn an automatic entry into the 2016 University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC). Furthermore, according to last year’s Extemp TOC guidelines, all finalists at Wake Forest also receive a bid to that tournament.
Here are the results of the 2015 Wake Forest National Earlybird (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Justin Graham (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
2nd: Varun Bhatia (Trnity Preparatory School, Florida)
3rd: Keegan Hasson (Henry W. Grady High School, Georgia)
4th: Maddie Jarrard (Brentwood Academy, Tennessee)
5th: Justin Cooper (Scarsdale High School, New York)
6th: Hasna Karim (Southside High School, South Carolina)
Semi-Finalists
*Jack Beedle (Salem High School-Salem, Virginia)
*Paul Bousquet (Battle Ground Academy, Tennessee)
*Manisha Dubey (Ardrey Kell High School, North Carolina)
*Thomas Rollins (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Nathaniel Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Jake Wartel (Lake Braddock Secondary School, Virginia)
*Bradley Wascher (St. James School, Alabama)
Quarter-Finals
*Amir Abou-Jaoude (Henry Clay High School, Kentucky)
*Collin Brown (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Regan Copple (Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa)
*Emily Falica (SKY Academy, Kentucky)
*Gregory Fedorov (Henry W. Grady High School, Georgia)
*Sam Lombardo (Henry W. Grady High School, Georgia)
*Bharat Modi (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
*Aaron Patel (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Samhitha Sunkara (Ardrey Kell High School, North Carolina)
*Jacob Thompson (Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa)
*Divya Vijayakumar (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
Extemp Central thanks Wake Forest for putting the tab sheet of the tournament online.