National Merit Semifinalists announced for area Ohio high schools

Sue Kiesewetter
·3 min read

Mason High School led Southwest Ohio schools once again with 38 National Merit Semifinalists – the most at any high school.

That puts them in an elite group – less than one percent – of the nation’s high school seniors, based on results of the 2021 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

About 16,000 students across the country were named semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., including 177 students in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky.

“These Comets are so much more than a test score,’’ said Bobby Dodd, Mason High School’s principal. “They are also leaders in our community, school activities, sports and performing arts.”

Besides Mason, three other area high schools had more than 10 semifinalists. Walnut Hills High School had 16, and St. Xavier and Sycamore high schools each had 11.

About 15,000 of the semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level in February. That makes them eligible for $2,500 scholarships awarded by National Merit and other scholarships awarded to semifinalists by colleges, universities, and businesses.

Altogether, about 7,250 scholarships worth more than $28 million are expected to be awarded between April and July 2023. This is the 68th year of the competition.

Butler County

There are National Merit Semifinalists from five high schools in Butler County.

  • Badin High School: Mary Giffen, James Zettler.

  • Edgewood High School:: Aaron Castro.

  • Fairfield High School:: Caden McCollum, Eduardo Majia-Pretto, Kenta Thyagaraj, Dylan Vanderpool.

  • Lakota East High School: Ian Balfour, Elliott Keith, Natasha Kejriwal, Reagan Ryan.

  • Talawanda High School:: John Moul, Benjamin Zazycki.

Clermont County

Two schools in Clermont County had National Merit Semifinalists.

  • Goshen High School: Julia Allgeyer.

  • Milford: High School: Jackson Geis, Korbin Gray.

Hamilton County

There are National Merit Semifinalists from 24 high schools in Hamilton County.

  • Anderson High School: Daniel Hensler, Samuel Mizukawa, Cole Williams, Benjamin Zhou.

  • Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy: Andrew Ghastine, William Kuhlman, Isaac Mills, Grace Pearson, Benjamin Smith, Craig Stotz.

  • Clinton-Massie High School: Luke Goodwin.

  • Colerain High School: Cory Thornicroft.

  • Indian Hill High School:: Connor Coffman, Elizabeth Consolino, Victoria Gonzalez, Vinya Ivaturi, Joseph Kayne, Pranav Rastogi, Elsa Zhou.

  • LaSalle High School:: Isaiah Roman.

  • Loveland High School:: Allyson Colegate, Broderick Merz, Carmen Noe, Evan Osgood.

  • Madeira High School:: Charles Manning, Milo Nelson.

  • Mariemont High School:: Daniel Cooper, Harry Manzler.

  • Mercy McAuley High School:: Elizabeth Schloss, Lindsay Woodard.

  • Moeller High School:: Jonathan Breeze.

  • Mount Notre Dame Academy: Maria Kilgore, Elizabeth Mansfield.

  • Oak Hills High School:: Madeline Seibert.

  • Schilling School for Gifted Children: Sebastian Castilla.

  • Seven Hills School: Shanaya Bharucha, Elias Buttress, Catherine McAndrew, Rohan Nambiar, Neel Parameswaran, Jack Ringel, Evan Vordemesche.

  • Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students: Yun Park.

  • St. Ursula Academy: Colleen Lake.

  • St. Xavier High School:: Isaac Chang, Charles Dillon, Bryan Greive, Oscar Haughey, Patrick Jennings, Benjamin Johnston, Ethan Macasilli-Tan, Dominic Nadler, Andrew Robinson, John Sniegocki, Samuel Warren.

  • Summit Country Day School: Allison Burns, Lavina Grzymajlo, William McLane, Mia Rahner.

  • Sycamore: High School: Joseph Arieta, Claire Berlier, Connor Christenson, Kiera Leloup, Hari Murali, Ria Parikh, Tara Patil, Sophia Roth, Sydney Skinner, Mara Thomas, Jieun Woo.

  • Turpin High School:: Jacob Goehring, Shobhit Mishra, Vipul Rao, Braden Williams.

  • Ursuline Academy: Emma Clark, Wren Kitchings.

  • Walnut Hills High School:: Ahmad Alrefai, Sarthak Dighe, Matthew Dillon, Graham Dunwoodie, Luke Early, Noah Esmail, Nathan Huang, Elias Johnson, Louis Ke, Garrett Kirsch, Lydia Knutson, Miriam Knutson, Joseph Liao, Nicholas Luginbill, Eliza O’Keefe, Neil Sampath.

  • Wyoming High School:: Jackson Harness.

Warren County

There are National Merit Semifinalists from three high schools in Warren County.

  • Kings High School: Aaron Groff, Zachary Spring, Samuel Webster,

  • Lebanon High School: Ava Repka

  • Mason High School: Ryan Abbott, Amir Akbar, Patrick Arp, Risha Chada, Tiyasa Chakraborty, Michelle Chen, Samvit Das, Ahan Datta, Adithya Deepak, Nishi Gandra, Matthew Heinen, Urav Hingrajia, Richa Jha, Gretchen Knuth, Edward Kong, Kushal Kothapalli, Guhan Krishnan, Michelle Li, Wendy Lin, Sanjana Nair, Keith Neuburger, Elina Parekh, Matthew Qiu, Tanay Sahasrabudhe, Sarah Schwartzkopf, Cynthia Shao, Davin Sivertson, Hannah Stevens, Owen Summers, Surya Suresh, Emir Tali, Sanjana Velu, Macy Walker, Laurel Wang, Lillian Wang, Lulu Wang, Maria Zacher, David Zhang.

  • Springboro High School: Anna Barker, Samuel Langer, Shawn Syed.

  • Waynesville High School: Grant Kazmierski.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: National Merit Semifinalists announced for area Ohio high schools