At last week’s James Logan MLK Invitational, 54 extempers battled in International Extemp, as did 45 others in United States Extemp in the first West Coast tournament of this year’s National Points Race.
#3 Theodore Gercken of the College Preparatory School (CA), coming off of a top five finish at the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin, swept both categories, winning International Extemp by two cumulative ranks over Isaiah Sohn of Redlands High School (CA) and United States Extemp by eight ranks over Kashish Priyam of the Harker School (CA).
Third place in International Extemp went to Gordy Sun of the Harker School, who won a final round tiebreaker over Michelle Giovinazzo of Miramonte High School (CA) after both of them deadlocked at 41 total ranks.
Francis Olakangil of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA), who won last year’s tournament in International Extemp, reached the final round but finished sixth. Olakangil’s teammate, Shamit D’Souza, took fifth in the category.
Eshaan Rawat of James Logan placed third in United States Extemp, narrowly beating Arnav Aggarwal of Bellarmine College Preparatory by one rank for the honor.
Fifth place in United States Extemp went to #21 Lauren Kim of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA) and Ethan Chen of Monte Vista High School (CA) finished sixth.
James Logan allowed seven extempers into the final round, but only the top six will earn National Points Race points. Narrowly missing points for the tournament were Rudy Mahajan of Davis Senior High School (CA) in International Extemp and #8 Brandon Cheng of Flintridge Preparatory in United States Extemp.
#19 Raghav Ramki of Plano East Senior High School (TX) competed as an independent entry in United States Extemp but dropped in the semi-final round. Ramki finished the tournament in eighth place with a better cumulative rank total than any of the other semi-finalists.
To prevent double counting in the National Points Race, an extemper’s top finish will count toward this year’s standings. That means Gercken will net 40 points for winning his first National Points Race tournament of the season.
All of the finalists in each extemp category earn a bid leg to this year’s UK TOC in April. The Extemp TOC does not award any bids for the event.
Here are the results from the 2023 James Logan MLK Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
International Extemp
Champion: Theodore Gercken (The College Preparatory School, California)
2nd: Isaiah Sohn (Redlands High School, California)
3rd: Gordy Sun (The Harker School, California)
4th: Michelle Giovinazzo (Miramonte High School, California)
5th: Shamit D’Souza (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
6th: Francis Olakangil (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
7th: Rudy Mahajan (Davis Senior High School, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Aidan Chao (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
*Joy Hu (The Harker School, California)
*Rayyan Hussain (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Joshua Kwong (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Andrew Park (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Joseph Thomas (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Fiona Yan (The Harker School, California)
Quarter-Finalists
*Ethan Chen (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Ethern Gulcu (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Maximilian Guo (BASIS Independent – Silicon Valley, California)
*Morgan Hoang (Westridge High School, California)
*Surya Krishnapillai (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Krish Maheshwari (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Aishi Vijayaraghavan (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Camila Rivera (Cheyenne East High School, Wyoming)
*Olivia Tan (Westridge High School, California)
*Jessica Zhou (The Harker School, California)
United States Extemp
Champion: Theodore Gercken (The College Preparatory School, California)
2nd: Kashish Priyam (The Harker School, California)
3rd: Eshaan Rawat (James Logan High School, California)
4th: Arnav Aggarwal (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
5th: Lauren Kim (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
6th: Ethan Chen (Monte Vista High School, California)
7th: Brandon Cheng (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Aadi Chauhan (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Samarjit Deshmukh (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Zane Hensley (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Rohan Lingam (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Ali Malik (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Raghav Ramki (Plano East Senior High School, Texas)
*Neil Shah (Clovis North High School, California)
Quarter-Finalists
*Austin Bauman (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Rishabh Goel (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Saanvi Goyal (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Khedaar Kashyap (Leland High School, California)
*Samuel Ma (Velasquez High School, California)
*Emily Parastie (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Casey Scheiner (Miramonte High School, California)
*Jason Shim (The Harker School, California)
*Ellie Sohn (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
*George Stullich (Helix Charter High School, California)
*Navya Tyagali (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Pavana Upadhyaya (Leland High School, California)
*Rohit Vakkalagadda (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Calvin Zhou (Lynbrook High School, California)
Extemp Central thanks James Logan High School for posting the results of the tournament online.