Last weekend the second online tournament of this year’s National Points Race was held by Stanford University.  The Stanford Invitational, upgraded to a fourth tier event because of its online nature, welcomed 56 extempers in International Extemp and 70 in United States Extemp.  As expected, the tournament featured a diverse array of talent from across the United States, including many ranked extempers.  It was the second of three tournaments in this year’s West Coast swing.

Abhijay Rana of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) led a dominating performance by his school in International Extemp, defeating Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin winner #2 Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School (TX).  Rana won the title by four ranks, winning two first place ranks out of five in the final round.  Haider, who made his fourth National Points Race final round this season, did not pull a first place rank but was the second choice of three final round judges.

Third place in International Extemp went to #25 Anushka Gupta of Westwood High School, who tied Haider for second place but lost three to two on a judges’ preference tiebreaker.  Gupta was the best performing extemper at the tournament, though, as she would perform even better in the United States Extemp portion of the tournament.

Bellarmine placed two additional extempers in the International Extemp final round as Andrew Lei finished fourth and Samuel Ma finished sixth.

Wedged between Lei and Ma was Sivani Babu of DuPont Manual High School (KY).  Babu is the first Kentucky extemper to receive points in this year’s National Points Race.

California was not able to defend its home turf in United States Extemp, though, as Gupta bested five California extempers to win the title.  Gupta denied Maximilian Guo of BASIS Silicon Valley the chance to win a second leg of the West Coast swing by one rank.  Guo won three of the five first place ranks in the round but a sixth place rank from one of the judges cost him dearly.

#9 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School (CA) maintained a rigorous travel schedule, notching a third place finish.  Kalir-Starr was five ranks back of Gupta and four of Guo.  Stanford was her fifth National Points Race final round this year, more than any other extemper.

One rank behind Kalir-Starr was Shloka Chawla of Leland High School (CA), who was followed in turn by Isaac Chen of Gabrielino High School (CA), and George Balan of Miramonte High School (CA).

Several ranked extempers made it to elimination rounds by did not clear to finals.  In International Extemp #8 Sahana Srikanth of Mason High School (OH) was eliminated in semi-finals.  In United States Extemp #1 Robert Zhang of Elkins High School (TX) was eliminated in quarter-finals.  Also, Austin Bauman of Bellarmine College Preparatory, who won last year’s California Invitational, went out in semi-finals.

Since Stanford was a fourth tier event all extempers who reached semi-finals in their respective category will earn points.  In the event that an extemper placed in each category, their highest finish will count for points.  The tournament’s winners, Rana and Gupta, will each receive 70 points.

Here are the results of the 2025 Stanford Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):

International Extemp

Champion:  Abhijay Rana (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
2nd:  Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
3rd:  Anushka Gupta (Westwood High School, Texas)
4th:  Andrew Lei (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
5th:  Sivani Babu (DuPont Manual High School, Kentucky)
6th:  Samuel Ma (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)

Semi-Finalists

*Rishabh Goel (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Sydney Litt (Windward School, California)
*Rohan Sontakke (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Sahana Srikanth (Mason High School, Ohio)
*Dustin Tran (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Andrew Zheng (Acalanes High School, California)

United States Extemp

Champion:  Anushka Gupta (Westwood High School, Texas)
2nd:  Maximilian Guo (BASIS Silicon Valley, California)
3rd:  Daphne Kalir-Starr (The College Preparatory School, California)
4th:  Shloka Chawla (Leland High School, California)
5th:  Isaac Chan (Gabrielino High School, California)
6th:  George Balan (Miramonte High School, California)

Semi-Finalists

*Austin Bauman (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Felix Ding (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Daniela Holden (The Berkeley Carroll School, New York)
*Natalia San Lucas (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Olivia Tan (Westridge School, California)
*Myles Vuong (Stuyvesant High School, New York)

Quarter-Finalists

*Matthew Abrams (George Washington High School, Colorado)
*Rose Butje (Windward School, California)
*Marco Cisneros-Farber (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Soham Dwivedi (Monta Vista High School, California)
*Waleed Haider (Hendrickson High School, Texas)
*Ayush Iyengar (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Samuel Ma (Bellarmine College Preparatory, California)
*Robert Liu Meng (Syosset High School, New York)
*Phillipe Rieber (NSU University School, Florida)
*Ella Witalec (The Laurel School, Ohio)
*Robert Zhang (Elkins High School, Texas)
*Andrew Zheng (Acalanes High School, California)

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