by Daniel Kind
In early February, the 34th Annual Stanford Invitational, an important tournament for West Coast Extempers has concluded. This year’s instance of the Palo Alto tournament attracted 69 competitors, mostly from California in National Extemp and 66 competitors in International Extemp. The Stanford Invitational is a fifth-tier tournament which means that it is a make or break affair. Only finalists are awarded points in the national points race. Since the tournament divides Extemporaneous Speaking into International and National (US) categories, the competitors who placed in the top 6 using a formula that calculates results in both categories.
 
Nikitha Kalahasti, an MBA attendee from Presentation High School in California placed 1st in the International Category and 3rd in the National Category. These placements give her 1st place overall and 40 points in the National Points Race. Krish Kothari from Mission San Jose High School in California earned 2nd place overall as a result of his 2nd place finish in International Extemp and his semifinal placement in National Extemp. James Hu of Mira Loma High School in California got 3rd place overall; he finished in 5th place in both International and National Extemp. Arham Habib from Monte Vista High School in California came in 4th place overall since he won the National Extemp category. 5th place goes to Keith Maben from Golden State Academy in California, who got 2nd in National Extemp. Rounding out the finalists is Monte Vista High School’s Lisa Leung, who finished 3rd in International Extemp.
 
For their performances, Kalahasti got 40 points, Kothari got 34, Hu got 28, Habib got 20, Maben got 16, and Leung accrued 13 points in the Extemp Central National Points Race.
Here are the results of the 2020 Stanford Invitational: