This year the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) celebrated its 100-year anniversary, hosting the tournament in Des Moines, Iowa.  Hundreds of extempers gathered to battle for this year’s national championships in International and United States Extemp with many in the National Points Race advancing deep into the competition.

In International Extemp, #5 Anthony Babu of Concord-Carlisle High School (MA) successfully defended his national championship, becoming just the second extemper to win back-to-back IX national titles.  Babu won the tournament by 14 ranks, assisted by also winning the final round.  Ryan Xu of Plano West Senior High School (TX) finished second.

Xu was part of a strong Texas contingent in IX as the state had four finalists.  #3 Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School was third, #6 Anushka Gupta of Westwood High School finished second in the final round and placed fourth, and Pranav Kothur of Tompkins High School was sixth.

Thomas Guo of Bellarmine College Preparatory finished fifth.

The National Points Race came down to the final round in United States Extemp.  Needing a strong finish, #1 Robert Zhang of Elkins High School (TX) once again lived up to his ranking.winning a sixth National Points Race event and taking the USX national title by 15 ranks.  Like Babu, Zhang won the final round national title as well, winning the round by ten ranks.

To win the title, Zhang had to defend off a series of California challengers in a good year for the state.  Sovia Villagra of Gabrielino High School was second; #2 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School, who finished second in the final round, was third; #16 Andrew Zheng of the Acalanes High School was fourth; and Samuel Ma of Bellarmine College Preparatory was sixth.

Annie Chen of BASIS Chandler (AZ) was fifth.

It was interesting that none of the finalists in IX or USX except for Babu were in last year’s final rounds.  #13 Tea Shouldice of Half Hollow Hills High School East (NY) elected not to attend this year’s tournament and defend her USX national championship.  In USX, Ella Witalec of the Laurel School (OH) was a finalist last year and finished twelfth this year.  She was the only returning finalist aside from Babu to make a deep run in the tournament.

NCFL National Champion #14 Nicholas Zylstra of Eastview High School (MN) made it twelve rounds in USX, finishing fourteenth.  None of the NCFL extemp finalists made an NSDA final round this year although Zylstra, #12 Anwen Williams of Lawrence Free State High School (KS), #11 Aparna Iyer of Ridge High School (NJ), and Claire Han of Munster High School (IN) reached semi-finals in their respective categories.

All of the non-seniors in USX and IX that reached the final or semi-final round earn an automatic qualification in that category to next year’s national tournament.  Like last year, about two-thirds of those in finals and semi-finals were not seniors, continuing a trend at the national tournament where senior competitors are not attending the national tournament or advancing deep in the competition.  Automatic qualifiers to next year’s nationals are highlighted in blue below.

Extemp Central congratulates all of the finishers. A final update for this year’s National Points Race will be posted in a few days.

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

International Extemp

National Champion: Anthony Babu (Concord-Carlisle High School, Massachusetts)
2nd: Ryan Xu (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
3rd: Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
4th: Anushka Gupta (Westwood High School, Texas)
5th: Thomas Guo (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
6th: Pranav Kothur (Tompkins High School, Texas)

Semi-Finalists

7th: Sophia Amundgaard (Stillwater Area High School, Minnesota)
8th: Kate Liu (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
9th: Carter Mak (Gabrielino High School, California)
10th: Anwen Williams (Lawrence Free State High School, Kansas)
11th: Claire Han (Munster High School, Indiana)
12th: Sahaka Srikanth (Mason High School, Ohio)
13th: Al Zaidi (Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, Florida)
14th: Hunter Payne (Cypress Ranch High School, Texas)

Quarter-Finalists

*Zoe Becker (The School Without Walls, Washington, D.C.)
*Adyant Bhavsar (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Rose Butje (Windward School, California)
*Pradnya Chakka (Melissa High School, Texas)
*M.J. Chu (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Sam Kuykendall (San Angelo Central High School, Texas)
*Fiona Macdonald (Denver East High School, Colorado)
*Anish Mehta (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Jessie Moss (The School Without Walls, Washington, D.C.)
*Isha Nagajothi (Jackson High School, Ohio)
*Kajal Parmar (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
*Amal Sastry (Mounds Park Academy, Minnesota)
*Rowan Seipp (A&M Consolidated High School, Texas)
*Sashwath Sivaraman (Riverside High School, South Carolina)
*Alina Vang (Pekin Community High School, Illinois)
*Lindsey Zhao (Plano Senior High School, Texas)

Octa-Finalists

*Mina Bhargava (Edina High School, Minnesota)
*Christie Carlo (Nova High School, Florida)
*Isaac Chan (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Maxon Chen (Lee’s Summit North High School, Missouri)
*Prachi Chetlur (Upper St. Clair High School, Pennsylvania)
*Marco Cisneros-Farber (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Noori Choudhary (Unionville High School, Pennsylvania)
*Luke Chung (Pine Creek High School, Colorado)
*Debabandya Dash (Naperville Central High School, Illinois)
*Shriya Dharmapurikar (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Angad Dulai (Clovis North High School, California)
*Kai Forbach (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Arya Goyal (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Daniela Holden (Berkeley Carroll School, New York)
*Adalia Karda-Marok (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Ajinkya Karnataki (American Heritage Schools – Palm Beach, Florida) *Madisen Laird (Cheyenne Central High School, Wyoming)
*Vedant Parikh (Dougherty Valley High School, California)
*Eric Qian (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Tanmay Rai (The Village School, Texas)
*Akhil Reddy (Blue Valley High School, Kansas)
*Noah Schenkman (Desert Vista High School, Arizona)
*Mihir Singla (Granite Bay High School, California)
*Shriya Surana (Irvington High School, California)
*Ty Tan (Coral Academy of Science – Las Vegas, Nevada)
*Aarush Tutiki (Albuquerque Academy, New Mexico)
*Aanya Venkat (Arizona College Prep High School, Arizona)
*Ella Venzke (Stillwater Area High School, Minnesota)
*Iris Weisstein (Perrysburg High School, Ohio)
*Elena Zhang (Redlands High School, California)

United States Extemp

National Champion: Robert Zhang (Elkins High School, Texas)
2nd: Sovia Villagra (Gabrielino High School, California)
3rd: Daphne Kalir-Starr (The College Preparatory School, California)
4th: Andrew Zheng (Acalanes High School, California)
5th: Annie Chen (BASIS Chandler, Arizona)
6th: Samuel Ma (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)

Semi-Finalists

7th: Aparna Iyer (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
8th: Natalia San Lucas (Gabrielino High School, California)
9th: Nathan Cook (Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Ohio)
10th: Paul Fertig (Mounds Park Academy, Minnesota)
11th: Charlotte Reitman (NSU University School, Florida)
12th: Ella Witalec (The Laurel School, Ohio)
13th: Madeline White (Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School, Pennsylvania)
14th: Nicholas Zylstra (Eastview High School, Minnesota)

Quarter-Finalists

*Shresta Antil (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Austin Bauman (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Rehan Buvvaji (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Dylan Chauhan (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Connor Doherty (Granite Bay High School, California)
*Jason Fricks (Muldrow High School, Oklahoma)
*Vasu Lakshmanan (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Jordan Lewin (Collierville High School, Tennessee)
*Claire Liu (Portola High School, California)
*Manuela Meija-Fanjul (Convent of the Sacred Heart – New York City, New York)
*Alexandre Morel (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Sylvia Oglesbay (Edina High School, Minnesota)
*Frankie Silla (Perry High School, Ohio)
*Katherine Simpson (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Deepika Sujay (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Lucas Vargas (Brophy College Preparatory, Arizona)

Octa-Finalists

*Jack Aaron (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Rayyan Alam (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*Arkana Anwar (Memorial High School, Texas)
*Jaden Bills (Rigby High School, Idaho)
*Silas Bloch (Collegiate School of Medicine & Bioscience, Missouri)
*Fred Coddon (Eastside Preparatory School, Washington)
*Ally Chadwell (Sandra Day O’Connor High School, Texas)
*Rohan Dash (Pine View School, Florida)
*Shreya Dinesh (Glenelg High School, Maryland)
*Isaac Edwards (Loveland High School, Colorado)
*Bailey Fischer (Woodlands College Park High School, Texas)
*Gary Hao (Millard West High School, Nebraska)
*Alyson Johnson (Willmar Senior High School, Minnesota)
*Charlotte Keenan (Midtown High School, Georgia)
*Noah Kim (A&M Consolidated High School, Texas)
*Anya Kleinman (Richard Montgomery High School, Maryland)
*Arjun Kumar (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Ella Larson (Moorhead High School, Minnesota)
*Mandi Lu (Solon High School, Ohio)
*Lyra Majumdar (Harvard-Westlake School, California)
*Ayush Makavana (Mason High School, Ohio)
*Blake McFalls (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
*Daniel Mitchell (Rocky Mountain High School, Colorado)
*Aaron Piehl (Tompkins High School, Texas)
*Samuel Rein-Strutz (Moorhead High School, Minnesota)
*Ana Rubio-Calvillo (The Laurel School, Ohio)
*Roshan Shivnani (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*William Samara (San Marino High School, California)
*Jackson Woodward (Cumberland Polytechnic High School, North Carolina)
*Jeffrey Yu (Riverside High School, South Carolina)

Extemp Central thanks the National Speech and Debate Association for putting the results of the tournament online.