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Nearly one hundred extempers participated in International and United States Extemp at the Winston Churchill Classic last weekend in San Antonio, Texas. The tournament saw two previous Extemp Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifying tournament champions return the winner’s circle as Abhinav Sridharan of Plano Senior High School (TX) won International Extemp and Karna Venkatraj of A&M Consolidated High School (TX) won United States Extemp.
Sridharan’s victory is his third victory at a TOC qualifying tournament this season, more than any other competitor in the country. Sridharan won the International Extemp half of St. Mark’s and the Plano West Senior High School Tournament in October. Shreetika Singh of Seven Lakes High School (TX) finished second to Sridharan, with Mark Wilson of the Parish Episcopal School (TX) taking third. Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin invitee Marshall Webb of Saint Mary’s Hall (TX) placed fourth.
In United States Extemp, Venkatraj won his second TOC qualifying tournament title of the year beating Neil Patel of Plano West Senior High School (TX) in the final round. Venkatraj won International Extemp at the University of Texas-Austin Longhorn Classic last month. Jordan Rojas of Hendrickson High School (TX) finished third behind Venkatraj and Patel.
All of the tournament finalists earned a qualifying leg to the 2015 Extemp TOC at Northwestern University. Most of the finalists in both categories were pre-qualified to the TOC before the tournament, but two extempers – Sir Maxim Belov of Lake Travis High School (TX) and Wilson – finalized their TOC qualification. Five other extempers earned their first qualifying leg, leaving them roughly a month left to finish their at-large qualification to this year’s TOC. All of those earning a qualifying leg are indicated in italics below.
In addition, all of the finalists at the tournament earned an automatic qualification to the University of Kentucky TOC.
Here are the results from the 2015 Winston Churchill Classic: