In early December, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia hosted its annual Patriot Games Tournament. After spending the last few years online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Patriot Games returned to being an in-person event and forty-one extempers gathered for a fourth tier tournament in the National Points Race.
Taylor Burris of the Potomac School (VA) captured this year’s championship, becoming the second winner from Potomac in the last five years. Burris took two of the three available first place ranks in the final round and defeated Sydney Carroll of Battle Ground High School (TN).
The next three placings were separated by one rank. #12 Pierce McDade of Normal University School (IL) notched his second National Points Race final round appearance of the season, placing third. Zane Holley of Riverside High School (SC) was fourth. And Lily Waehner of James River-Midlothian High School (VA) was fifth.
Ben Zajc of American Heritage School-Palm Beach (FL) was the sixth place finisher.
The Potomac School did the best of all institutions in the tournament in terms of extemp, placing three additional extempers in semi-finals.
Since George Mason was a fourth tier tournament, all extempers who reached the semi-final round will earn National Points Race points.
All extempers who reached quarter-finals earned a bid to the Tournament of Champions of Extemporaneous Speaking at Northwestern University in May. All finalists earned a bid to the University of Kentucky TOC in April.
Here are the results of the 2022 George Mason University Patriot Games (Click here for tab sheet):
Champion: Taylor Burris (The Potomac School, Virginia)
2nd: Sydney Carroll (Battle Ground Academy, Tennessee)
3rd: Pierce McDade (Normal University School, Illinois)
4th: Zane Holley (Riverside High School, South Carolina)
5th: Lily Waehner (James River-Midlothian High School, Virginia)
6th: Ben Zajc (American Heritage School-Palm Beach, Florida)
Semi-Finalists
*Alex Bauer (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Lydia Credle (Pinecrest High School, North Carolina)
*Kasim Khapra (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Isabella Murillo (Riverside High School, South Carolina)
*Meredith Vorndran (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Collin Wang (North Allegheny Senior High School, Pennsylvania)
Quarter-Finalists
*Arihant Aneja (University School, Ohio)
*Maris James (Cary Academy, North Carolina)
*Logan Mitchell (Martin County High School, Florida)
*Graham Moore (Pinecrest High school, North Carolina)
*Ayanna Nayar (The Potomac School, Virginia)
*Andres Orejuela (American Heritage School-Palm Beach, Florida)
*Krteyu Ramanathan (Riverside High School, South Carolina)
*Neeharika Ramasubramanian (Riverside High School, South Carolina)
*Samvrit Rao (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology, Virginia)
*Alex Reavey-Cantwell (Collegiate School, Virginia)
*Nuha Shaikh (Riverside High School, South Carolina)
*Avery Sierra (Pinecrest High School, North Carolina)
*Keshawn Spence (Martin County High School, Florida)
*Anna Wood (James River-Midlothian High School, Virginia)
Extemp Central thanks George Mason University for putting the results of the tournament online.