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More than one hundred United States extempers and ninety International extempers competed last weekend at the University of Texas-Austin Longhorn Classic. The tournament allows extempers to participate in both extemp categories and it typically provides a venue for those seeking to bolster their resumes for the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin.
In the International Extemp portion of the tournament, Karna Venkatraj of A&M Consolidated High School (TX) defeated Davis Larkin of the Parish Episcopal School (TX), who took second at the Glenbrooks, by seven ranks. Venkatraj took two of the available first place ranks in the final round. Hina Uddin of Foster High School (TX) took third place.
In United States Extemp, Larkin beat Rachel Evans of Salado High School (TX) by one rank. Larkin was the only extemper at the tournament to made the final round in each category. Jordan Rojas of Hendrickson High School (TX) finished third. Venkatraj’s hopes of winning both categories ended when he was eliminated in the semi-final round.
Aside from Larkin, the only other prominent National Points Race competitor in the field was Phoebe Lin of Plano West Senior High School (TX). Lin made the semi-finals of IX and did not clear into the outrounds of the USX portion of the tournament.
All of the extempers reaching the semi-final round earned a qualification leg for the 2015 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University. Eleven extempers locked up their qualifications for this year’s tournament, and four of them did so at the tournament based on their performance in both categories. These extempers included Nicholas Curtis of Westwood High School (TX), Evans, Zach Falkenbury of Hendrickson, Emily Hua and Hasan Syed of Plano West, Ayesha Karnik of Flower Mound High School (TX), Michael Lupher of L.C. Anderson High School (TX), Smriti Ahuja, Simbai Mutandrio and Shreetika Singh of Seven Lakes High School (TX), and Venkatraj. Twenty-four competitors earned their first qualifying leg. All of those receiving TOC qualifying legs are indicated in italics below.
Here are the results of the 2014 University of Texas-Austin Longhorn Classic (Click here for tab sheet):