Extemp Question Central National Points Race

by Logan Scisco

The first semester of the extemporaneous speaking season has come and gone with the conclusion of the prestigious Glenbrooks tournament in Illinois on November 23^rd-24^th and the George Mason University Patriot Games tournament on December 6^th-8^th in Fairfax, Virginia.  These tournaments were both “third tier” tournaments, with the winner of each receiving 50 points towards the inaugural Extemp Question Central National Points Race standings.

It is worth noting that the George Mason University Extemp Round Robin, which features a very unique head-to-head format, and was won by Stacey Chen of North Allegheny Senior High School in Pennsylvania, does not count towards the standings.  Instead, only the “open” portion of the tournament where all extempers could compete counts.

The George Mason University Patriot Games tournament, a tournament that grows in stature each year, had a final round that greatly impacted the standings with the third through sixth place finishers already established in the National Points Race.  The Glenbrooks tournament also had the unique distinction of putting Nova High School in Florida on the map in the National Points Race team standings.

Individual Standings

Here are the updated individual standings as of December 8, 2008.  The top fifteen in the rankings, including ties, are included below:

One of the biggest movers and the name that attracted the most attention during the last month is Stacey Chen.  Her win at the Glenbrooks tournament and third place finish at the George Mason University Patriot Games tournament netted her eighty points, enough to move from a tie for seventh into the “shotgun” position in the rankings and give her a thirty point lead over last month’s points leader, Dillon Huff of Carroll High School.  Chen’s lead would be larger if the extemp round robin portion of the Patriot Games tournament counted for points.  The competitor she defeated in the final of the round robin, Jane Kessner of Walt Whitman HS in Maryland, sits outside of the top fifteen with the twenty points that she earned for a fourth place finish at Glenbrooks.

The winner of the Patriot Games “open” tournament, Aaron Lutkowitz of Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, a school that will host the prestigious national extemp round robin in a few weeks, earned fifty points and makes his debut in the rankings in the seventh position, tied with early season winners Alon Elhanan of the Bronx High School of Science in New York, who won the Wake Forest Early Bird, and Matt Arons of Millburn High School in New Jersey, who won the Yale University Invitational tournament.

Inactivity kept Nick Cugini of Cypress Ridge High School in Houston, Texas from moving anywhere in the standings, and his position in the standings, owed to strong finishes at the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational, slipped from second to third.

As was stated earlier, the George Mason tournament’s bottom finishes played a major role in movements toward the top of the rankings.  Outside of Chen’s placing, Jovalin Dedaj of Fordham Preparatory in New York, arguably one of the more consistent point achievers this year, finished fourth at the tournament, earning twenty points, retaining their fourth place position in the standings.  Also, sixth place finisher Carl David Goette-Luciak of Blacksburg High School in Virginia earned twelve points at the tournament, and added onto his Wake Forest Early Bird fourth place finish, to break out of a tie for eleventh position and move into the top ten.

Another mover in the standings, thanks to the Glenbrooks tournament, is Morgan Brooksh of McNeil High School in Texas.  Fueled by a sixth place finish their, Morgan moved from a tie for seventh into sole possession of sixth place.

To round out the top ten discussion, Brennan Morris of Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia retains sole possession of fifth place despite not accumulating any points for this last cycle of tournaments with seventy points.

What is certain is that these standings will suffer a massive shakeup, because the next tournament to be added to the points standings is the first “second tier” tournament of the year:  the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin.  Providing 100 points to the winner, this tournament will allow anyone within grasp of Chen to overtake her, or provides the possibility of Chen to build a monster lead heading into the Barkley Forum in late January.  Readers interested in seeing how this could affect the standings should check out the “Handicapping the MBA Field” article in this magazine.

Team Standings

The National Team Points Race continues to see a shakeup at the top for the third consecutive month.  Here are the updated top ten in the Extemp Question Central National Team Points Race as of December 8, 2008:

Thanks to Stacey Chen’s performances at Glenbrooks and the George Mason University Patriot Games tournament, North Allegheny Senior High School in Pennsylvania has vaulted from sixty-six points down in the last issue of The Ex Files into first place in the team rankings.  Carroll High School in Texas, who also has three finalists, but from two different extempers, dropped from first to second after a period of point inactivity last month.  The same is true for Cypress Ridge High School in Texas, who drops from second to third place.

Florida powerhouse Nova High School makes its debut in the yearly rankings after having Ryan Pereira and Jared Odessky finish second and third, respectively, behind Chen at the Glenbrooks tournament in mid-November.  Nova shares a tie for fifth in this month’s rankings with Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, whose point total is due to the performance of Brennan Morris.

Fordham Preparatory in New York, riding on the coattails of Jovalin Dedaj’s third final placing of the year, retains its position in fourth place with seventy-six points.  Similarly, McNeil High School of Texas, led by their extemper Morgan Brooksh’s three final placings, moves up from eight place to seventh, overtaking Newton South High School of Massachusetts, who has not registered any points since September with the placings of Rebecca Goldstein and Alex Tolkin at the Yale University Invitational tournament.  The same can be said of Bronx High School of Science in New York and Millburn High School in New Jersey, who are in a tie for ninth in the rankings.

Rounding out the top ten is Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, who has registered fifty points based on the victory of Aaron Lutkowitz at the George Mason University Patriot Games tournament.

As with the individual rankings, the team standings could suffer another large shakeup depending on the results of the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin in Nashville in two weeks.

Tournament Overview

Here is an overview of the tournaments that will count for this year’s competitive calendar towards the Extemp Question Central National Points Race, how many points each tournament will be worth, and who the big winners have been so far.