The last National Points Race tournament that took place the first weekend of December was the George Mason University Patriot Games, held on December 7-8 in Fairfax, Virginia. 66 extempers competed, eleven more than the previous year.
The tournament was won by #13 Kajal Parmar of Cary Academy (NC). Parmar, who was appearing in her second National Points Race final round, defeated #10 Aparna Iyer of Ridge High School (NJ), who was making her third National Points Race final round appearance of the semester, by three ranks. Meredith Vorndran of the Potomac School (VA) tied Iyer for second but lost on a judges preference tiebreaker.
Parmar is the first North Carolina extemper to win the Patriot Games since 2010. That year saw Nathaniel Donahue of Durham Academy win the title.
#7 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School (CA), a fourth place finisher at the New York City Invitational earlier in the season, finished fourth. Kalir-Starr was four ranks back of Vorndran and two ahead of Eva Chen of Ridge and Shretsa Antil of Ridge, who tied for fifth place. Chen defeated Antil for the position by judges’ preference.
The GMU final round had seven competitors, with seventh going to Anna Benjamin of Cary Academy.
Since the Patriot Games was a fifth tier event, only the top six finalists earned points. Parmar will receive 40 points for her victory.
Here are the results of the 2024 George Mason University Patriot Games (Click here for tab sheet):