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Heading into Friday morning’s final rounds, three competitors remain alive in the 2014-2015 National Points Race competition: Justin Graham of Trinity Preparatory School (FL), Brian Anderson of LaRue County High School (KY), and Josh Wartel of Lake Braddock Secondary School (VA). Graham and Anderson will be competing in the International Extemp final, while Wartel will be competing in the United States Extemp final.
In this article, what I have attempted to do is to lay out how many points reach competitor could earn based on certain finishes at the tournament and then explain scenarios that would allow each competitor to win the National Points Race. For Wartel, he can only position himself to win the National Points Race by finishing first or second in U.S. Extemp so those are the only placings listed for him. By each placing, the number of total National Points Race points a competitor would have at the end of the tournament based on that placing is shown by the placing number. For example, if Justin Graham were to finish first in IX then he would have a cumulative season total of 762 points. Since the winner of the IX final round will receive fifty points and the final round winner of USX will receive forty points, the number in parenthesis by the number of total points a competitor might earn by placing at a certain position is how many points that person would earn if they also won the final round. So for example, if Josh Wartel finishes first in U.S. Extemp and wins the final round he would have 639 points for the entire season. Although calculations are included for final round victories if a competitor places fourth, fifth, or sixth, it is highly unlikely that with the NSDA’s current setup of the final round counting for 25% of a competitor’s elimination round score that someone would win the final round and place that low. Still, it is included just in case something unpredictable happens.
There is one scenario that could produce a mathematical tie between Graham and Anderson. In the National Points Race, ties are broken with the following criteria (in order of importance): number of wins, number of top three finishes at National Points Race competitions, and number of National Points Race final rounds. If all of this fails to break a tie, then co-champions are declared.
So here are the possible combinations of points that each of the three competitors could earn in their respective final rounds:
Starting tomorrow, the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational will take place in Dallas, Texas. The tournament is unique in that it allows extempers to do both United States and International extemp. The St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational is a fifth tier tournament and is the third tournament of the year in the Extemp Central National Points Race.