Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) has made it a habit of winning the California Invitational, taking three of the last five titles and this year was no different as Austin Bauman outlasted 129 other extempers to win the last National Points Race tournament of the regular season.
The tournament was cumulative from prelims and Bauman’s lead going into the final round allowed him to take the title as he won by one rank over #13 Evelyn Tsoi of Velasquez Academy (CA), who was appearing in her third National Points Race final round this season. Tsoi, who won the United States Extemp half of the James Logan MLK Invitational last month, won the final round but that was not enough to claim the overall tournament title even though Bauman took fourth in finals.
Like last year’s tournament, the final rankings of the tournament were close as #15 Abhijay Rana of Bellarmine, the winner of the International Extemp half at MLK, was a mere three ranks behind Tsoi. And Katherine Peckham of Westwood High School (TX), the only non-Californian in the final round, was one rank behind Rana. Peckham was runner-up to Tsoi in the final round after taking three first place ranks from the five judge panel and they made the biggest leap in the tournament from prelims to finals after they only cleared into elimination rounds by two ranks. Only a fourth and fifth place rank in the final round kept them out of the top three.
Bauman’s win was the second in a row for Bellarmine at the tournament after #7 Rohit Vakkalagadda won last season. Vakkalagadda’s bid for a second consecutive title, a feat that has not been done in 11 years, ended in prelims as he missed the break to elimination rounds by one rank.
Ethan Chen of Monte Vista High School (CA) took fifth place, finishing six ranks behind Peckham. And #17 Ellie Sohn of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA) reached her third National Points Race final round of the year and placed sixth. Sohn led the tournament after prelims.
Isaiah Sohn of Redlands High School (CA) and Ali Malik of Monta Vista High School (CA) were not able to replicate their final round finishes at last year’s California Invitational. Sohn dropped in quarter-finals and Mailk in octa-finals.
#23 Joy Hu of the Harker School in the tournament field but was not able to reach elimination rounds. Like Vakkalagadda, she missed the break by one rank.
Since the California Invitational was a third tier event, Bauman will receive 100 points for his victory and all extempers who reached quarter-finals will receive points. New National Points Race standings will be posted by next weekend.
Here are the results of the 2024 California Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Austin Bauman (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
2nd: Evelyn Tsoi (Velasquez Academy, California)
3rd: Abhijay Rana (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
4th: Katherine Peckham (Westwood High School, Texas)
5th: Ethan Chen (Monte Vista High School, California)
6th: Ellie Sohn (Flintridge Preparatory School, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Matthew Abrams (George Washington High School, Colorado)
*Anish Chowdhury (ModernBrain, California)
*Maximilian Guo (BASIS Independent Silicon Valley Upper School, California)
*Zane Hensley (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Poorvi Kumar (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
*Aditi Singh (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
Quarter-Finalists
*Robert Fields (The Harker School, California)
*Rishabh Goel (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Anushka Gupta (Westwood High School, Texas)
*Khedaar Kashyap (Leland High School, California)
*Taite Kirkpatrick (Mount Vernon High School, Washington)
*Isaiah Sohn (Redlands High School, California)
*Fiona Yan (The Harker School, California)
*Andrew Zheng (Acalanes High School, California)
Octa-Finalists
*Neil Alappatt (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Riya Bharath (The Harker School, California)
*Simran Bhattacharya (West High School, California)
*Shreyas Chakravarty (The Harker School, California)
*Daniel Chen (The Harker School, California)
*Logan Genova (George Washington High School, Colorado)
*Ethern Gulcu (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Charlie Hui (Westwood High School, Texas)
*Roy Jeong (Henry M. Gunn High School, California)
*Avelyn Jing (The Harker School, California)
*John Kelly (Miramonte High School, California)
*Vedant Khadiya (Valencia High School, California)
*Hannah Kim (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
*Ali Malik (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Chaith Mittal (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Arjun Patil (Flower Mound High School, Texas)
*Kashish Priyam (The Harker School, California)
*Vivek Rajdev (ModernBrain, California)
*Jason Shim (The Harker School, California)
*Olivia Tan (Westridge High School, California)
*Albert Yao (The Harker School, California)
Extemp Central thanks University of California-Berkeley for putting the results of the tournament online.
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