This year’s Barkley Forum, held on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in late January, drew a large field of 99 extempers, helping the tournament live up to its reputation as one of the biggest Southern tournaments of the year.
Like James Logan’s MLK Invitational held a week before, history was made as Zoe Becker of the School Without Walls (Washington, D.C.) became the first extemper from the District of Columbia to win a National Points Race tournament. Becker took down a field of past and current National Points Race tournament winners, many of whom are ranked in the top 25.
In the final round, which the tournament dubs as the James Copeland Exhibition Round, Becker was the only extemper to win multiple first place ranks among the round’s five judges. That allowed for a four-rank win over Florida Blue Key winner #15 Sven Stumbaeur of Christopher Columbus High School (FL).
Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL) finished in third, the same place as she did at last year’s event. Reitman was one rank behind Stumbaeur but finished one rank ahead of Alexandre Morel of Plano West Senior High School (TX). Reitman and Morel were making their second appearance in a National Points Race final round this season.
There was a tie for fifth place between Rehan Buvvaji of Plano West and #9 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School (CA). Buvvaji won it by a judges preference tiebreaker three to two. Kalir-Starr was making her fourth National Points Race final round appearance after a runner-up finish at the James Logan MLK Invitational.
A few other ranked extempers made it to elimination rounds. #8 Sahana Srikanth of Mason High School (OH), #22 Kaitlyn Fan of Plano West, and #25 Anushuka Gupta of Westwood High School (TX) made it to semi-finals. #5 Al Zaidi of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy (FL) dropped in quarter-finals.
Since the Barkley Forum was a fourth tier event, all extempers who reached semi-finals will receive some points toward the National Points Race. Becker will receive 70 points for her victory.
Here are the results of the 2025 Barkley Forum (Click here for tab sheet):