It is the fourth consecutive year that St. X has led the state in producing Merit Scholarship semifinalists.

Overall, 200 public and private high school students in the region made the prestigious list. About 16,000 students nationwide will compete for 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards worth a total of $33.9 million. The 2005 scholarships will be awarded in the spring.

Other local schools with a high number of semifinalists include Sycamore High School, 22; Walnut Hills High School, 17; Seven Hills School, 12, and Ursuline Academy, 11.

This year's local National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, and their high schools:

OHIO

Anderson: Kevin Hobson, Cliff Long, John Reid, Bryan Young

Batavia: Brooks Wilhelm

Bethel-Tate: Lisa Howison

Cincinnati Country Day: Eugene Cone, Ceridwen Hall, Nathaniel Miller, Brian Rue, David Tapke

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy: John Pate

Colerain: Brayden Coombs, Robyn Hubbuch

Fairfield: Craig Buckley

Finneytown: Yann-Erik Adams, Jeffrey Dollard

Glen Este: Jonathan Davis

Harrison: Justin Westrich, Caroline Willis

Home School: Sean Bussell (Cincinnati)

Indian Hill: Adriana Ciccone, Casey Merritt, Hari Shankar, Anne Vanderschueren

Kings: Philip Albert

Lakota East: Maria Abascal, Gregory Back, Steve Levin

Lakota West: Aalap Bommaraju, David Carper, Courtenay Holscher, Matthew Meyer, Charlie Wang, Muzhou Wang, Xiao Wang

La Salle: Matthew Flanigan

Lebanon: Daniel Aldridge

Loveland: Michael Millhaem, Karl Skare

Madeira: Thomas Agran, Cynthia Crowe, Hannah Dinnen, Douglas Hopping, Michael Misali, Lauren Paluta, Ana Perez, Stephen Tensmeyer

Mariemont: Sean Cameron, Michael Donovan, Randall Williams

Mars Hill Academy: Andrew Brinkerhoff, Bill Robinson

Mason: Katherine Buitrago, Chris DeLotell, Stacy Goldston, Kathryn Jacoby, Rachel Reeves, David Wang, Thomas Xu, Lily Zhang

McAuley: Alexandra Ogden

McNicholas: Alex Kellerman, Andrew Lohbeck, Kevin McLaughlin

Middletown: Christopher Basil

Milford: Rose Slupski

Oak Hills: Patrick Haller

Princeton: Sarah Foley, Haessly Frantz, Vlad Golgotiu, Samantha Groh, Brian Holcomb, Andrew Mullin, Hayley O'Brien

Roger Bacon: Christopher Bohnlein

Seton: Amy Wurzelbacher

Seven Hills: Lauren Chen, William Constable, Robert Cottrell, Rachel Habbert, Frederick Hall, Thomas Linz, Carter Miller, Sarah Ott, Asia Reid, Ann Rittgers, Will Selnick, Chris Wade

St. Ursula Academy: Rita Celebrezze, Amanda Goyer, Jennifer Hsu

St. Xavier: Jeremy Aronow, Joesph Baker, Jonathan Bell, James Dickhoner, John Fogg, Alexander Hunt, Suneel Kamath, Richard King, John Kleimeyer, Francis Larkin, David Lustenberger, Patrick MacKenzie, Steven McCarthy, Neil Mehta, Eric Moster, Daniel Peck, Anand Savani, Eric Sayre, Louis Schweer, Phillip Seitzer, Ricky Sharma, Michael Smith, Anthony Stertz, Patrick Tassone, Eric Webb

Stephen T. Badin: Jonathan Hufford, Kathleen Janik, Megan Jeffcoat

Summit Country Day: Stefan Kathman, Katie Klosterman

Sycamore: Alexandra Appatova, Adam Bahir, Amber D'Souza, Brad Elkus, Matthew Evans, Aaron Friedman, Jared Goldfarb, Nasser Haddad, Matthew Hershberger, Kimberly Johnson, Kavita Joshi, Carol Kao, Allison Lacker, Dara Lind, Rakesh Mannava, Daniel McGrath, Dimitry Mezhvinsky, Laura Moster, Andrew Ng, Shriya Raghavan, Ahilan Sivaganesan, Arthur Wang

Talawanda: Amy Johnson, Cameron Shriver

Turpin: James Moler, Tyler Ohnmeis, Michael Petro

Ursuline Academy: Lauren Brilli, Katharine Ciliberti, Kristin Coyle, Sharmistha Das, Nikita Desai, Erin Fenton, Sarah Ladrick, Amy Moffett, Lisa Morin, Caroline Sim, Kathleen Towers

Walnut Hills: Katherine Agnew, Jane Cheng, Julie Faller, Carolyn French, Allison Grubbs, Katherine Hattemer, Danielle Heiman, Katherine Herman, Jasmine Linck, Alexander Magg, Emily Michael, Brian Perbix, Jason Pipkin, Emily Sharrow, Ervin Tormos, Cale Weatherly, Jacob Whitman

Williamsburg: Jesse Burroughs (home-schooled)

Wyoming: Amy Lowitz, Steve Mieczkowski, Maureen Stickel

KENTUCKY

Bishop Brossart: Daniel Beck

Boone County: Lindsay Maurer

Calvary Christian: Jonathan Smith

Conner: Stacey Doran, Alexandra Luke, Allan Straub

Covington Catholic: Michael Awadalla, Andrew Noll

Dixie Heights: Karen Etter, Matthew Liechty

Highlands: Jeffrey Steller, Jacob Webster

Holmes: Keith Torrey

Home School: Michael Glier (Hebron)

Holy Cross: Ryan Sketch

Notre Dame Academy: Julie Anderson, Julie Duncan, Laura Zerhusen

Ryle: Brian Goessling, Shannon Horton

St. Henry: Jordan Martin

Villa Madonna Academy: Matthew Love, Christopher Polito

Walton-Verona: Max Gjerde

INDIANA

East Central: Jeremy Holliday

Oldenburg Academy: Joel Wukusick