An eye-popping 281 extempers traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts last month for the Harvard Speech and Debate Tournament, which once again lived up to its billing as the largest national circuit tournament of the season.  The crowded field gave way to a star-studded final round where all of the extempers are ranked in the National Points Race and four of them had won National Points Race tournaments this season.

#1 Robert Zhang, who had seen his National Points Race lead shrink going into the tournament, made a strong statement to end the regular season, winning the championship by three ranks over #4 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School (CA).  Zhang was the only extemper to take multiple first place ranks in the final round, enabling him to win his fourth National Points Race event of the season in five final round appearances.

Kalir-Starr maintained a strong second semester run, making her sixth National Points Race final round.  It is her third top three finish of the season as well.

#2 Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School (TX) had a chance to become the new National Points Race leader in the final round but fell short of that mark.  He took one first place rank in finals but a sixth place rank left him two ranks behind Kalir-Starr for second place. That is where Haider finished at the tournament last season.  It is his fifth top three finish at a National Points Race event this season.

#5 Anthony Babu of Concord-Carlisle High School (MA) reached his fourth National Points Race final round.  The reigning NSDA International Extemp national champion finished fourth, a mere rank ahead of #17 Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL).  Like the other extempers in the final round, Reitman is also a multi-time finalist this season with Harvard marking the third time that she has reached that point of a tournament.  Reitman’s fifth place finish was two ranks clear of #11 Anushka Gupta of Westwood High School (TX), who entered Harvard after a win at Stanford in United States Extemp.

The elimination rounds were littered with other ranked extempers.  #6 Al Zaidi of Holy Trinity Episcopal School (FL) reached semi-finals; #8 Kate Liu of Plano West Senior High School (TX), #9 Sahana Srikanth of Mason High School (OH), and #17 Lindsey Zhao of Plano Senior High School (TX) made it to quarter-finals; and #15 Alexandre Morel of Plano West, #16 Pranav Gorty of Plano Senior, #19 Kajal Parmar of Cary Academy (NC), and #22 Ishika Kothari of Plano East were eliminated in octa-finals.

Harvard is the only regular season contest that is a second tier tournament.  As a result, all of the extempers who broke into elimination rounds will earn points.  Zhang will receive 150 points for his win.

Here are the results of the 2025 Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):

Champion:  Robert Zhang (Elkins High School, Texas)
2nd:  Daphne Kalir-Starr (The College Preparatory School, California)
3rd:  Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
4th:  Anthony Babu (Concord-Carlisle High School, Massachusetts)
5th:  Charlotte Reitman (NSU University School, Florida)
6th:  Anushka Gupta (Westwood High School, Texas)

Semi-Finalists

*Luke Chung (Pine Creek High School, Colorado)
*Rohan Dash (Pine View School, Florida)
*Robert Liu Meng (Syosset High School, New York)
*Katherine Simpson (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Ella Witalec (The Laurel School, Ohio)
*Al Zaidi (Holy Trinity Episcopal School, Florida)

Quarter-Finalists

*Rehan Buvvaji (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Nicholas Cylstra (Eastview High School, Minnesota)
*Grace Klausner (Convent of the Sacred Heart-New York City, New York)
*Kate Liu (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Manuela Mejia-Fanjul (Convent of the Sacred Heart-New York City, New York)
*Boyana Nikolova (Irondale High School, Minnesota)
*Anokhi Shah (Eagan High School, Minnesota)
*Roshan Shivnani (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Sahana Srikanth (Mason High School, Ohio)
*Param Thakkar (Eagan High School, Minnesota)
*Vanessu Wu (The Bronx High School of Science, New York)
*Lindsey Zhao (Plano Senior High School, Texas)

Octa-Finalists

*Jack Aaron (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Devarsh Borah (Edina High School, Minnesota)
*Rose Butje (The Windward School, California)
*Christie Carlo (Nova High School, Florida)
*Mateo Delgado (Ransom Everglades School, Florida)
*Shriya Dharmapurikar (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*John Germak (Regis High School, New York)
*Max Goldstein (Syosset High School, New York)
*Pranav Gorty (Plano East Senior High School, Texas)
*Valerie Gu (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*Audrey Han (Westlake High School, Texas)
*Daniela Holden (Berkeley Carroll School, New York)
*Ishika Kothari (Plano East Senior High School, Texas)
*Arjun Kumar (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Eva Lammer (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Vasu Lakshmanan (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Anish Mehta (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Ava Moore (Pinecrest High School, North Carolina)
*Alexandre Morel (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Jessie Moss (The School Without Walls, Washington, D.C.)
*Clara Oldham (Cookeville High School, Tennessee)
*Kajal Parmar (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
*Rohan Saarang (Eastview High School, Minnesota)
*Annie Tan (Minnetonka High School, Minnesota)
*Myles Vuong (Stuyvesant High School, New York)

Extemp Central thanks Harvard University for posting the results of the tournament online.