Extemp Question Central National Points Race (September)

by Logan Scisco

In our last issue, we broke down the structure of this year’s Extemp Question Central National Points Race.  Points are awarded to competitors based on their performance in three tiers of tournaments.  The first tier is composed of the two major national tournaments, CFL and NFL Nationals, the second tier is composed of skill level national tournaments where extempers must qualify, such as the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin and the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions, and the third tier is composed of ten pre-selected national circuit tournaments.  At the end of the season, the individual extemper who accumulates the most points will be named the 2009 Extemp Question Central National Points Race Champion and will receive a trophy paid for by Extemp Question Central to commemorate their accomplishment.  There is also a team rankings component built into the system, where teams can accumulate points based on how their extempers place in the final rounds of the three tiers of tournaments discussed above.

After the month of September, Extemp Question Central is ready to release its first official rankings for the 2008-2009 season.  The rankings are based purely on merit and finishes in the final rounds of tournaments, not based on any pre-rankings before the beginning of the season.  Two tournaments have been added into the rankings so far, the Wake Forest National Early Bird Tournament, held on September 12-14^th, and the Yale University Invitational Tournament, held on September 26^th-28^th.

Individual Standings

Here are the individual standings so far this season:

Due to the fact that there was no overlap of competitors who attended both Wake Forest and Yale, there are a lot of ties in the rankings.  By our next edition, the University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic (October 18^th-19^th) and the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational (October 16^th-19^th), where extempers can get double points due to there being two tournaments at that invitational for U.S. extemp and International extemp, will have been completed, bringing our total number of tournaments in the rankings to five.

At the top of this month’s rankings are Alon Elhanan of the Bronx High School of Science in New York and Matt Arons of Millburn High School in New Jersey who won the Wake Forest Early Bird and Yale Invitational tournaments, respectively.  They have an early, ten point jump on their other extemporaneous speaking competitors later in the year.  Due to the fact that Montgomery Bell Round Robin invites go out shortly, both competitors performance at these tournaments could warrant serious consideration for attending.

One of the names that stands out in the early rankings is last year’s NFL United States extemporaneous speaking champion Rebecca Goldstein of Newton South High School in Newton, Massachusetts.  As was revealed in last month’s edition of this magazine, if the rankings system was used for last year, Goldstein would have edged out CFL and NFL National Champion Askhar Rambachan for the national points race championship.  This year, based on her third place finish at the Yale University tournament, Goldstein starts the defense of her title tied for sixth in the rankings with David Goette-Luciak of Blacksburg High School in Blacksburg, Virginia, who placed third at the Wake Forest Early Bird.  Luciak placed 12^th last year in International extemporaneous speaking at NFL.

Other notable extempers in this first month’s rankings calculation are Stacey Chen of North Allegheny Senior High School in Pennsylvania and Brennan Morris of Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia.  Chen, last year’s Pennsylvania state extemporaneous speaking champion, placed second at the Yale Invitational, and finished 13^th in last year’s rankings.  She currently sits tied for third place in the rankings.  Morris, a fourth place finisher at the Wake Forest Early Bird, placed 14^th in last year’s rankings, one point behind Chen.  He is currently situated in a tie for eighth place with last year’s NFL Commentary national champion, Alex Tolkin, Rebecca Goldstein’s teammate from Newton South High School.

What needs to be emphasized, though, is that this is just a mere glimpse at how these rankings may look by the time the end of June arrives and the final publishing of these rankings takes place.  With three more tournaments to be added to the rankings by the next edition, much shakeup could occur, especially in terms of breaking the tie at the top of the rankings between Elhanan and Arons.

Team Standings

Here is a look at the current team standings after Wake Forest and Yale:

Team rankings are determined by applying points extempers earn in competition from the National Points Race to the team that they compete for.  If there is a tie in terms of total points, the tie is broken by the amount of finalists a team has had to represent its point total.  This is meant to reward teams who have multiple competitors achieve points for them rather than relying on one outstanding extemper.

After the first two tournaments of the season, Newton South High School of Massachusetts has made a strong push to the top of the rankings.  Newton South is a familiar powerhouse on the extemporaneous speaking circuit and last year they finished twenty-nine points behind Scarsdale High School of Scarsdale, New York in the team rankings.  This month, led by Rebecca Goldstein and Alex Tolkin’s third and fourth place finishes at the Yale Invitational, Newton South has accumulated fifty points.  The Bronx High School of Science in Bronx, New York and Millburn High School in Wyckoff, New Jersey received their fifth points following student victories at the Wake Forest Early Bird and Yale Invitational, but they are both tied for second because they only had one finalist and Newton South had two.

North Allegheny Senior High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania also starts out tied for fourth position in this year’s rankings, following up on a tenth place showing in last year’s test rankings, which were revealed in our last issue.

More teams will be inserted to shake up the rankings, following St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational and the University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic, after this week.  With both tournaments happening on the same weekend and with different regions represented, the rankings are bound to undergo significant change, and tighten even more, by our next issue in mid-November before the prestigious Glenbrooks tournament.

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 they will be worth, and who the big winners have been so far.