National Merit Semifinalists Named -- Garfield High Has Most In Region With 25

Twenty-five students at Seattle's Garfield High are among this year's semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition, the first and most important stage of a program that will end next spring with scholarships for many of the students honored.

Garfield's number far surpassed that of any other high school in the state; private Lakeside School, with 15 semifinalists, had the second-highest total statewide.

More than 15,000 students nationwide, out of more than 1.1 million who take the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, become semifinalists.

Overall, fewer than 1 percent of each state's graduating class are named semifinalists. That percentage can be significantly higher at an individual school. At Garfield, for example, the 25 semifinalists equal almost 7 percent of this year's senior class. At Lakeside, the 15 semifinalists equal 13 percent of seniors.

Other high schools in the greater Seattle area with four or more semifinalists were:

Mercer Island (eight); Bainbridge and Newport (five each); and Auburn, Bellevue, Blanchet, Holy Names, Inglemoor, Lake Washington, Mount Rainier, Shorecrest and Transition School for Early Entrance Program at the University of Washington (four each). Here are the semifinalists in the greater Seattle area:

Auburn:

Auburn High: Noel Rawlings, Chelsea Richards, Sabrina Richards, Alicia Wells.

Thomas Jefferson High: Christine King, Elizabeth Schnackenberg.

Kent View Christian High: Sara Jaime.

Bainbridge Island:

Bainbridge High: Nora Ferrn, Nathan Shapiro, Nick Soman-Faulkner, Megan Thorsen, Lorne Walker.

Home-school: Jeanette Fiess.

Bellevue:

Bellevue High: Gregory Arnold, Rachel Evans, David Moilanen, Sonia Timberlake.

International School: Daniel Marsh.

Newport High: Rohit Bhave, Marek Grabowski, Jeffrey Maurer, Sara Su, Teddy Youn.

Bothell:

Inglemoor High: Daniel Dethloff, Kathryn McDonald, Ryan Toivola, Lee Zeman.

Burien:

John F. Kennedy High: Niclas Dahlvang, Stephen Young.

Des Moines:

Mount Rainier High: Daniel Lewis, Wesley McCullough, Brian Smith, Haley Thompson.

Duvall:

Cedarcrest High: Brook Adam.

Enumclaw:

Enumclaw High: Dustin Wallace, Christine Wright.

Everett:

Cascade High: Ilona Coyle, Michael Nelson.

Everett High: Stephen Unckles.

Federal Way:

Decatur High: Daniel Finley.

Federal Way High: Allison Hopkins.

Issaquah:

Home-school: Sarah Huber.

Issaquah High: Danielle Grigsby, Mark Stribling, Tim Tan.

Kent:

Kent-Meridian High: Eric Heutchy.

Kentridge High: Elsa Buckley, Jason Jenks.

Kentwood High: Robin Mayes.

Kirkland:

Juanita High: John Edwards, Daniel Glasser, Meredith Slota.

Lake Washington High: Alex Glover, Peter Henderson, Elizabeth Irvine, Derek McClellan.

Lynnwood:

Meadowdale High: Eli Lassman, Kenneth Murray, Alex Rudback.

Marysville:

Marysville-Pilchuck High: Kevin Atkinson, Edward Martin, Nicole Webb.

Mercer Island:

Mercer Island High: Issac Baker, Alex Gin, Chris Kelly, Joyce Ohgi, Christopher Shim, Mark Trousdale, Jennifer Tung, Krishna Vera.

Mill Creek:

Henry M. Jackson High: Amy Kalman.

Mukilteo:

Kamiak High: Daniel Brasier.

Redmond:

Eastlake High: Zachary Fabish, Sean McCormick.

The Overlake School: Josh Honeywell.

Renton:

Oliver M. Hazen High: Janessa Smith.

Charles A. Lindbergh High: George Teodoro.

Seattle:

Academy Northwest (home-school): Jesse Anderson.

Ballard High: Luke Williams.

Blanchet High: Tyler Allen, Anders Johnson, Tracy Middlebrook, Elon Slutsky.

The Bush School: Benjamin Dernboski.

Franklin High: Owen Douglas.

Garfield High: Sonal Avasare, Katherine Blizinsky, William Braden, Matthew Brubeck, Andrew Clark, Brian Dunstan, Nathaniel Echols, Jessica Foulks, Elinor Granzow, Colleen Kesterson, Michael Kieval, Katherine Leitzell, Hashim Mehter, Natalie Moore, Ross Morgan Linial, Alexander Olson, Andrew Schoonmaker, Kathryn Seldi, Brad Shy, Noah Sorscher, Clare Steedman, Nick Tompkins, Leila Walker, Aliseya Wright, Francis Yoshida.

Holy Names Academy: Catherine Blaylock, Caroline Dombrowski, Cara Kinsey, Ann Wagner.

Ingraham High: Amanda Alves, Rachel Harer.

Kings High: Todd Bowra, Brent Miller.

The Lakeside School: Andrew Brauninger, Lillie Cridland, Emily Cunningham, Douglas Dickson, Benjamin Diggs, Eric Kennedy, Adam Lazowska, Lisa Marshall, Meghan Mullarkey, Edward Palmer, Elizabeth Repass, William Roush, Ted Smith, James Stangeland, Lara Veblen.

The Northwest School: Katherine Carr.

Nova Alternative High: Luke Meyers.

O'Dea High: Stephen Schmitt.

Roosevelt High: Megan Thomas, Andrew Wall.

Seattle Preparatory School: Michael McMahon, Maria Rafael, Nicholas Stein.

Transition School for Early Entrance Program (at UW): Francois Brland, Thomas Carlson, Alison Lane, John Richmond.

University Preparatory Academy: Matthew Davis, Matt Herz, Kelly Princehouse.

Shoreline:

Shorecrest High: Emily Brooks, Andrew Fleming, Michael Regnier, Clayton Wheeler.

Snohomish:

Snohomish High: Benjamin Ewing, Anna Thelen, Samuel Wilson.

Sultan:

Sultan High: April Ciao, Hosannah Valentine.

Woodinville:

Woodinville High: Marc Vrana.