2015 Yale Invitational: Balaji Wins First National Circuit Championship; Graham Takes Second

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Last weekend at Yale University, Vaikunth Balaji of Ridge High School (NJ) foiled Justin Graham‘s efforts of winning a second consecutive National Points Race event. Balaji defeated Graham, who competes for Trinity Preparatory School (FL), by eight ranks in the cumulative tournament to receive seventy points in this year’s National Points Race competition. His victory is the first by a New Jersey extemper since Chase Harrison of Millburn High School won Yale as a sophomore in 2011.

New Jersey and Florida each had two extempers in the final round, with Andrew Langford of Lake Highland Preparatory (FL) finishing third and Christopher Mayer of Montville Township High School (NJ) finishing sixth.

All of the extempers that reached the semi-final round will receive National Points Race points and earn an automatic bid to the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC). Per last season’s Extemp TOC guidelines, those extempers who reached the quarter-finals will receive a qualifying leg.

Here are the results of the 2015 Yale Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):

Champion: Vaikunth Balaji (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
2nd: Justin Graham (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
3rd: Andrew Langford (Lake Highland Preparatory School, Florida)
4th: Jack Beedle (Salem High School-Salem, Virginia)
5th: Marshall Feingold (Syosset High School, New York)
6th: Christopher Mayer (Montville Township High School, New Jersey)

Semi-Finalists

*Zan Ahmed (Syosset High School, New York)
*Charlie Barton (Regis High School, New York)
*Vinay Bodapati (Solon High School, Ohio)
*Rahul Chopra (Concord Carlisle High School, Massachusetts)
*Brian Xu (San Marino High School, California)
*Jack Yan (Dreyfoos School of the Arts, Florida)

Quarter-Finalists

*Varun Bhatia (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Justin Cooper (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Nick Giuliano (Holy Ghost Preparatory, Pennsylvania)
*Clare Halsey (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Alex Hirsch (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Zach Kapner (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Kevin Marien (Freehold Township High School, New Jersey)
*Jack Odom (Unionville High School, Pennsylvania)
*Keshav Rastogi (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Nathaniel Saffran (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Marshall Sloane (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*Samhitha Sunkara (Ardrey Kell High School, North Carolina)
*William Wang (Pine View School, Florida)

Octo-Finalists

*Sydney Britton (American Heritage School – Plantation, Florida)
*Jose Francisco (St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Florida)
*Akshay Jain (Solon High School, Ohio)
*Julianne Kelleher (Natick High School, Massachusetts)
*Owen Kienzie (Carrollton High School, OhiO)
*Hari Kumar (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Alejandra Larriva-Latt (San Marino High School, California)
*Victoria Mak (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Rushabh Mehta (Syosset High School, New York)
*Yasmine Nousari (St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Florida)
*Alexandros Pandazis (Montville Township High School, New Jersey)
*Aaron Patel (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Collin Quigley (Holy Ghost Preparatory, Pennsylvania)
*James Rao (Newton South High School, Massachusetts)
*Ellis Sargeant (St. Joseph’s Preparatory, Pennsylvania)
*Lisa Shi (Stuyvesant High School, New York)
*Ashwin Singh (Unionville High School, Pennsylvania)
*Winson Ye (Newton South High School, Massachusetts)

Extemp Central thanks Yale University for posting the tournament results online.