The fourteenth edition of the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC) took place last weekend, kicking off the post-season portion of the national circuit calendar. This was the first year that the UK TOC was a major championship, replacing the Extemp TOC’s spot in the grand slam events.
#11 Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL) successfully defended her title and won her first major championship. Reitman defeated 67 other competitors but needed a judges’ preference tiebreaker to beat Barkley Forum champion Zoe Becker of the School Without Walls (Washington, D.C.). Reitman and Becker ended the final round with a fourteen rank composite and Reitman’s two first place ranks in finals helped her win another TOC title.
The victory was Reitman’s first of the season at a National Points Race event but was her fourth final round appearance. Since the TOC was a third tier event, she will receive 100 points toward her total in the National Points Race. That will allow her to get back into the top ten of the standings.
Third place at the TOC went to #7 Anushka Gupta of Westwood High School (TX). In a tight final round, Gupta finished only one rank behind Reitman and Becker. And #3 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School (CA) was a further rank back, increasing her impressive total of National Points Race final round appearances this year to seven.
#21 Pranav Gorty of Plano East Senior High School (TX) was a mere three ranks back of the winning total despite taking fifth place. Gorty, like Reitman, took two first place ranks in finals but a fifth and sixth place rank doomed a chance to exit Lexington as the tournament champion.
Sixth place went to Anish Mehta of Scarsdale High School (NY). Mehta earned points at a fourth National Points Race event this year, having previously been a finalist at Yale and an outround participant at the Princeton Classic and Harvard.
#2 Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School (TX) was in the field and had a chance to become the National Points Race leader with a first or second place finish. However, he was eliminated in quarter-finals. Other notables joined him in exiting in the first elimination round such as #9 Sahana Srikanth of Mason High School (OH) and #23 Kajal Parmar of Cary Academy (NC). All three competitors will still earn National Points Race points, though.
#6 Al Zaidi of Holy Trinity Episcopal School (FL) and #13 Sven Stumbauer of Christopher Columbus High School (FL) were in the field but missed the cut into elimination rounds. Zaidi tied for next out with five other competitors.
National Points Race standings will be updated the week after the TOC of Extemporaneous Speaking at Northwestern University, which takes place this weekend in Evanston, Illinois.
Here are the results of the 2025 University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (Click here for tab sheet):