Month: November 2023 Page 1 of 2

101 extempers converged on Northbrook, Illinois to participate in the 44th edition of the Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament, the first third tier tournament in this year’s National Points Race.

After four rounds of preliminary competition and three outrounds, #14 Lishore Kumar of Tomball Memorial High School (TX) emerged victorious, defeating #2 Sruti Peddi of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) by three ranks. Kumar took three of the five available first place ranks in the final round, while Peddi took three of the five available second place ranks. Both competitors also had a fourth and fifth place rank dot their final composites.

This was Kumar’s second final round appearance at a National Points Race tournament this year. Kumar placed fourth at the New York City Invitational last month.

Peddi finish second at last year’s Glenbrook as well. Her finish this year marks the third time that Peddi has been in a National Points Race final round, more than any other extemper in the country. Her finishes have gradually improved as she took fourth at the UK Speech and Debate Season Opener in September and third at Yale.

Kumar is the first Texas extemper to win the Glenbrooks in five years. Kate Fisher of St. Mary’s Hall won the tournament in 2017.

Texas had two other final round participants. #11 Robert Zhang of Elkins High School (TX), who took third at the Florida Blue Key last month, finished third and Tyler Crivella of Seven Lakes High School (TX) finished fourth. Crivella was just one rank back of Zhang for third place.

Like Peddi, Crivella was in last year’s Glenbrooks final round and he placed third at that competition.

NSDA International Extemp finalist Rohit Vakkalagadda of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA), who finished seventh in last year’s National Points Race, finished fifth in his first National Points Race final round appearance this season.

Sixth place was earned by Claire Han of Munster High School (IN). Although Han ended up at the back of the final round she was only three ranks away from Zhang’s third place finish, showing how close the final round was after Kumar and Peddi absorbed most of the top ranks.

The Harker School (CA) also had an impressive showing for its team, placing three extempers in semi-finals. This strong showing was put together by Joy Hu, Kashish Priyam, and Gordy Sun.

Some ranked extempers were in the Glenbrooks elimination rounds but fell short of finals. These included #15 Skyler Burrus of American Heritage School-Palm Beach (FL), #15 Arya Goyal of Scarsdale High School (NY), #15 Elizabeth Ovelil of Desert Vista High School (AZ), and #20 Sumedh Seetharam of Scottsdale Preparatory Academy (AZ), all of whom were knocked out in quarter-finals.

Since Glenbrooks was a third tier tournament, all of the extempers who reached elimination rounds will earn National Points Race points. Kumar earns 100 points for winning.

Here are the results of the 2023 Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):

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“Exodus to Excellence” is a four-year series that will focus on my high school journey through extemporaneous speaking.  Assisted by old ballots and a journal kept during these years, these columns will provide reflections on lots of old competitions and the lessons learned along the way.  Each week that a tournament took place in my career, one of these columns will appear.

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This is the first column of a four-year series that will focus on my high school journey through extemporaneous speaking.  Assisted by old ballots and a journal kept during these years, these columns will provide reflections on lots of old competitions and the lessons learned along the way.  Each week that a tournament took place in my career, one of these columns will appear.

Before we get to the first tournament, though, we have to discuss my getting onto Danville High School’s team.  This column will be a longer than the next one, which will follow on Friday and get into rounds and reflections, which will be the primary focus of these pieces.

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Friday will begin a four-year series of columns entitled “Exodus to Excellence,” providing a tournament-by-tournament and round-by-round breakdown of my career competing for Danville High School (KY) from 2000-2004.

Source material will be drawn from two places: old ballots and a journal of notes that I kept during these years. My old coach Steve Meadows kept all of our ballots each season and presented them to us at the team’s award ceremony. So I have four thick manila envelopes to sort through since this is before tournaments became virtual and ballots became electronic. I have not looked at many of these materials for close to 20 years.

It is my hope that this series can serve as an advice column for younger and seasoned competitors, while also providing a nice “blast to the past” for any longtime extemp veterans that visit this site. The column will showcase what extempers were talking about prior to the September 11 terror attacks (and how that tragic event reshaped the activity); practice routines; and the achievements, challenges, and setbacks that I faced as an ambitious competitor from a lesser known state.

So check back on Thursday for the posting of the first “Exodus to Excellence” column, which will be followed by another on Friday that details my first tournament experience at Scott County High School on November 11, 2000!