Harvard’s 48th annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament lived up to its reputation as the biggest high school regular season tournament as 184 extempers dueled in an online environment last weekend and Monday. When the dust settled, #3 Marc Zavarro of Western High School (FL) won a tightly contested final round over Katelyn Cai of BASIS Scottsdale (AZ) and #1 Daniel Kind of Lake Highland Preparatory School (FL). Zavarro defeated Cai and Kind by one rank and was the only competitor to capture two first place ranks among the final round’s five judges. Cai defeated Kind due to judge’s preference, three to two.
Zavarro’s victory keeps the Harvard title in Florida, albeit at a different school, becoming the third Floridian in the last four years to win Harvard. His victory prevented Kind from winning consecutive Harvard titles, something that has not been done since at least 2002, and broke Kind’s six-tournament winning streak in National Points Race events.
Florida had the most final round participants with three, with #24 Jack Ververis of Trinity Preparatory School (FL) placing fifth.
Other finalists included Iesh Gujral of Eden Prairie High School (MN), who placed fourteenth at last year’s NSDA National Tournament in International Extemp, and #9 Gabriel Frank-McPheter of Gabrielino High School (CA), who was participating in his fourth National Points Race final round this year and was coming off of a runner-up finish in U.S. Extemp at the Palm Classic. Gujral placed fourth, while Frank-McPheter finished sixth.
There were many notables that made the other elimination rounds. #8 Gabriel Bo and #19 Phoena Lin of Plano West Senior High School (TX) reached semi-finals. #6 Kyle Letterer of Plano West and #13 Mukta Dharmapurikar of Durham Academy (NC) made it to quarter-finals. And #4 Cameron Roberts of Jack C. Hays High School (TX), #5 McKinley Paltzik of Phoenix Country Day School (AZ), #15 Charles Hou of Plano West, #17 Swadesh Sistla of ModernBrain (CA), and #24 Madeline Tsao of Plano West dropped in octo-finals.
All quarter-finalists and beyond earn bid legs to UK TOC and the Extemp TOC. And all elimination round participants will earn points in the National Points Race, with new standings released by Sunday.
Here are the results from the Harvard National Forensics Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Marc Zavarro (Western High School, Florida)
2nd: Katelyn Cai (BASIS Scottsdale, Arizona)
3rd: Daniel Kind (Lake Highland Preparatory, Florida)
4th: Iesh Gujral (Eden Prairie High School, Minnesota)
5th: Jack Ververis (Trinity Preparatory School, Florida)
6th: Gabriel Frank-McPheter (Gabrielino High School, California)
Semi-Finalists
*Rishika Bansal (Scarsdale High School, New York)
*Gabriel Bo (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Kevin Li (Ridge High School, New Jersey)
*Phoena Lin (Plano West High School, Texas)
*Shreyas Sriram (Cherry Creek High School, Colorado)
*Nathan Zhou (Centennial High School, Texas)
Quarter-Finalists
*Lance Brightmire (Booker T. Washington High School, Oklahoma)
*Isabel Brittin (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Kate Carline (Rock Hill High School, Texas)
*Ethan Chen (Monte Vista High School, California)
*Mukta Dharmapurikar (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Kyle Letterer (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Varun Nannuri (Shrewsbury High School, Massachusetts)
*James O’Brien (Plano Senior High School, Texas)
*Govind Pattathil (Hebron High School, Texas)
*Kaaviya Shenbaharaman (Jasper High School, Texas)
*Elliot Smith (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*Isaiah Sohn (Redlands High School, California)
Octo-Finalists
*Nicholas Blauz (Nova Senior High School, Florida)
*Taylor Burris (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Santiago Malpica Calleja (Vista Ridge High School, Texas)
*Mark Davis (Davis Senior High School, California)
*Melinda Deng (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
*Preston Ferraiuolo (Regis High School, New York)
*Charles Hou (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Krish Kumar (Booker T. Washington High School, Oklahoma)
*Audrey Lee (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Elaine Ma (Archbishop Mitty High School, California)
*Arvind Maran (Shakopee High School, Minnesota)
*Neha Modak (Milton Academy, Massachusetts)
*McKinley Paltzik (Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona)
*Anirudh Prasanna (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Cameron Roberts (Jack C. Hays High School, Texas)
*Swadesh Sistla (ModernBrain, California)
*Aidan Slovinski (Regis High School, New York)
*Clara Son (Orange County School of the Arts, California)
*Gabriel Sundaramoorthy (Gabrielino High School, California)
*Nathan Tamkin (George Washington High School, Colorado)
*Tanmya Tripathi (Woodlands High School, Texas)
*Madeline Tsao (Plano West Senior High School, Texas)
*Jason Tu (Madison Central High School, Mississippi)
*Elizabeth Wong (Durham Academy, North Carolina)
*Olivia Yang (Westwood High School, Texas)
*Jason Yi (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia)
*Jakob Zertuche (Jack C. Hays High School, Texas)
Extemp Central thanks Harvard for putting the results of the tournament online.