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The field in International Extemp and United States Extemp has now been cut to fourteen. Competitors have two more rounds of competition this afternoon which will determine who will be in Friday morning’s final rounds.
As expected, the quarter-final round saw some notable names fall by the wayside. In International Extemp, Lyubov Kapko of Tempe Preparatory Academy (AZ), who finished third last year in Birmingham, dropped. Former IX semi-finalists Abhishek Bhargava of Jackson High School (OH) and Eric Wang of Solon High School (OH) were also eliminated.
There will not be a repeat of last year’s United States Extemp final round at this year’s nationals. Carunya Achar of Cypress Creek High School (TX), who finished sixth last season, was eliminated. The other five finalists from last year’s USX final round remained alive, though, including defending champion Arel Rende of Booker T. Washington High School (OK).
Per NSDA rules, a non-senior competitor that reaches semi-finals earns an automatic qualification back to next year’s national tournament. Eleven extempers have pre-qualified to next year’s nationals via this route (five in IX and six in USX). They are indicated in bold in our semi-finalist listing below.
Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) and Brophy College Preparatory (AZ) have a chance to put two extempers into the final round. Bellarmine’s extempers, Rohan Dhoopar and Alex Doan, are in IX, while Brophy’s extempers, Christopher Jordan and Joe Russell (who we apologize to for failing to put in our quarter-finalist listing last night), are in USX. California leads all states with seven extempers in semi-finals across both categories.
Of the twenty-eight extemp semi-finalists, five are women. Four female competitors remain in IX, while only one remains in USX. A female extemper has only won USX once since 1991.
Extemp Central congratulates all of this year’s semi-finalists.