Although the Stanford National Invitational was cancelled this year, the Palm Classic emerged as a late replacement for the annual event in Palo Alto, California. The tournament offered International and United States Extemp categories, with eighteen extempers competing in IX and thirty-four competing in USX.
In International Extemp #15 William Chien of the Harker School (CA) defeated Vansh Mathur of Cupertino High School (CA) by one rank. Judges were split across the final round, with Chien, Mathur, and Lakshya Chaudhry of Vancouver Debate Academy (Canada) each earning a first place ranking.
In the United States Extemp portion of the tournament Swadesh Sistla of ModernBrain (CA) defeated #14 Gabriel-Frank McPheter of Gabrielino High School (CA) by four ranks. Sistla took three of the five available first place ranks in the final round. Chien placed third, making him the best performing extemper in the tournament if results from each category were taken into account.
Other notable finalists in the tournament included a fourth place finish for #14 Michelle Jin of the Harker School (CA) in IX. And Luccia Yacoub of Gabrielino High School (CA), who sits just outside of the National Points Race Top 25, placed sixth in IX.
Some other prominent names dropped in the semi-final round of USX, just missing out on National Points Race points. These included #13 Praveen Kumar of the Hawken School (OH) and #20 Theodore Gercken of College Preparatory (CA).
Since the Palm Classic is a fifth tier tournament in the National Points Race all extempers who made the finals of IX and USX will earn points. In Chien’s case, his victory in IX will count but not his third place finish in USX to avoid double counting.
With regards to TOC qualifications, all semi-finalists and finalists earn a bid to the Extemp TOC. The top three in IX earn a bid to the UK TOC, while the top six in USX earn a bid to UK TOC.
Here are the results of the 2022 Palm Classic (Click here for tab sheet):