Wednesday, September 15, 1999
Merit contenders are named
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
One hundred ninety Tristate students, including two who are home-schooled, are among the top scholars in the nation.
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. has announced the names of more than 16,000 high school seniors who are semifinalists in the 45th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. They were among 1.2 million seniors in more than 20,000 U.S. high schools who entered the competition by taking the 1998 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
St. Xavier High School, with 22 students named semifinalists, had the most of any one school in Ohio this year. The numbers were down from the 34 semifinalists named last year but on par with the school's average of about 24 a year for the past 30 years, said Paul Zook, director of communications and events for St. X.
“We do hold our students to a high standard, and we do get the top students. This is just one indicator that maybe we're on track doing what we're supposed to be doing,” Mr. Zook said.
Among the Tristate's public schools, Walnut Hills and Sycamore had the greatest numbers of semi-
finalists this year — 12 and 11, respectively.
Fewer than 1 percent of the nation's high school seniors were designated semifinalists. They will compete for 7,600 Merit Scholarship awards, worth more than $28 million, to be awarded in the spring.
About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to become finalists, and half of those will win Merit Scholarships.
Area semifinalists:
OHIO
Anderson: Benjamin Mautner.
Bethel Tate: Jessica E. Moore.
Fenwick: Jessica Wesseler, Adam Williams.
Cincinnati Country Day: Ashley Alexander, Caroline Dejean, Charles Wilson.
Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy: Joseph Choi, Daniel Rogers.
Colerain: Heather Bensman, Trevor Gillette,Michelle Kieffer, Christopher Noelcke, Matthew Weiler.
Elder: Luke J. Busam, Brian Korte.
Fairfield: Michael Noda, Andrea Schaaf, Aaron Wartner.
Finneytown: Melissa J. King, Silvia Newell.
Glen Este: Jessica Adams, Joshua Spurgeon.
Hamilton: Leona Nibert.
Indian Hill: Giffen Maupin.
Lakota East: Catherine Matacic, Allison Penner, Melissa Sweigart, Elizabeth Vermeersch.
Lakota West: Kalki Bommaraju, Nathan Cruze, Brietta Lynch, Rubina Salikuddin, Maria Southman.
LaSalle: Adam J. Grener, Michael Hekler.
Lebanon: Joseph Clarke.
Madison: Nicholas Elam.
Mariemont: Lara Anthony.
Mason: Loren Faulkner, Kristen Renzi.
McAuley: Lauren Brinkman, Anne Ruffing, Angela Sparks.
McNicholas: Deborah Conrady, Jonathan Cremons, Lauren Hoffmann.
Moeller: Paul Bunch, Terrance Callan.
Mother of Mercy: Lauren Ashbrook, Ivy Gould, Emily Voellmecke.
Mt. Notre Dame: Caley Burke, Joan Freeman, Margaret Lerch, Leah Nicholls.
Oak Hills: Angela Illing, Leah Reddy.
Reading: Elizabeth Brown.
Ross: Nathan Smith.
Seven Hills Upper School: Hannah Agran, Benjamin Balskus, Charlie Black, Steven Broner, Kristen Brumfield, Andrew Eustis, Laura Gilinsky, Caroline Habbert, Anna Lappalainen.
St. Ursula Academy: Susan Cook, Jessica Grieser, Laura Kenkel, Joan Markey, Elizabeth Schmitz.
St. Xavier: Jim Burke, Jeff Cardella, Daniel Ellerbrock, Christopher Feldhaus, Jason Fugikawa, Jeffrey Geers, Nel Gokli, James Harris, Matthew Hirn, Joshua McAlpine, Lucas McClain, Matthew Mergy, Elijah Min, Sudarshan Muralidhar, Joseph Patterson, Gaurav Shukla, Matthew Swaidan, Ryan Temming, Adam Thompson, Joseph Turner, Mark Weber, Mark Zepf.
Springboro: Michael K. Harrington.
Badin: Donald Davis, Emily Lintner.
Summit Country Day: Tareq Abdulghani, Patricia Feghali, Erin Kelly, Sheena Mukkada, John Roth, Anthony Vila.
Sycamore: Sarah B. Autry, Caitlin Costello, Jeffrey Fridman, Geoffrey Levine, Julie Makutonin, Christine Santos, Ronjan Sikdar, Margaret Stinchcomb, Rebecca Tippett, Deitzah Woll, Emilie Zanger.
Talawanda: Andrew Erekson, Benjamin Hogue, Rebecca Hughes, Genevieve Knight, Richard Quantz, Celia Riechel.
Turpin: Kimberly Conrad, Anna Fecker, Marc Hiland, Rachel Petersman, Daniel Shrey, Loren Thomas.
Ursuline Academy: Elizabeth Briner, Jennifer Clarke, Christina Cunningham, Megan McConnell, Katherine Mesch, Veena Srinivasa, Sarah Stehlin.
Walnut Hills: Aaron Ansel, Daniel Brunner, Anjali D'Souza, Noah Falk, Benjamin Goldsmith, William Kuby, Elizabeth LaJeunesse, Katharine Lackemann, Malcolm Morriss, Russ Pennekamp, Kathryn Robinson, Gideon Shapiro.
Wilmington: Nathaniel Hoyt.
Winton Woods: David Adamson.
Wyoming: Andrew Finke, Eric Fu, Brian Goldstein, Kathryn Grim, Andrew Morin, Julian Reif, Julia Schiff, Susan Schroer.
Home-schooled: Lauren Bort, Maineville.
KENTUCKY
Brossart: James Weber.
Covington Catholic: John Asman, Brian Bowman, Ryan Conley.
Covington Latin: Eileen Broomall, Jimmy Crocker-
Lakness, Nicholas Stiegelmeyer.
Dixie Heights: Colby Cowherd.
Highlands: Cameron Nienaber, Daniel Sheffield.
Larry Ryle: Kevin Fox.
Notre Dame Academy: Kara Brinker, Michelle Kovarik, Sarah Matthews, Anna Rothert, Sara Schumacher, Carolyn Traud, Kathleen Walker.
Pendleton County: Farrah Dicken.
Simon Kenton: Andrew Lane.
St. Henry District: Jennifer Myatt.
Villa Madonna Academy: John Challis, Mary Gaunder.
Home-schooled: William Butler, Walton.
INDIANA
Franklin County: Andrea Meyer.
Lawrenceburg: Kendra McMullen.
North Decatur: David Howell, Jason Raver.
Oldenburg Academy: Corinne Beiersdorfer, Katherine Giesting, Kristina Giesting, Amelia Smith.
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