This year’s Tournament of Champions of Extemporaneous Speaking, hosted by Northwestern University, attracted a disappointing field of only 41 extempers for the national extemp circuit’s second major championship.
Sasha Morel of Plano West Senior High School (TX) won a decisive victory, beating Kajal Parmar of Cary Academy (NC) by eight ranks in the final round. Morel earned five of the seven available first place ranks.
Devarsh Borah of Edina High School (MN) rounded out the top three with a third place finish. Borah finished four ranks behind Parmar.
#12 Taylor Burris of the Potomac School (VA) was the highest ranked competitor in the field and made the final round, placing sixth. The only other ranked competitor in the National Points Race who made elimination rounds was #18 Kate Liu of Plano East Senior High School (TX), who dropped in semi-finals.
Even though the field did not attract many of the extempers in the top 25 of the National Points Race, the final round featured extempers from five states.
Plano West had two extempers in the final as Abraham Zhang took fifth.
Morel is the first Plano West extemper to win the TOC since Jacqueline Wei in 2019. Plano West has had three champions at the event, including Morel, since 2018. The school also won the tournament’s sweepstakes award.
All of the extempers that reached elimination rounds will earn National Points Race points.
Here are the results of the 2024 Tournament of Champions of Extemporaneous Speaking (Click here for tab sheet):