Morris High finishes 10th at state math contest
June 12, 2012 10:34AM
Pictured are (front, from left) Brian Bernier, Craig Claire, Tim Gile, Sean Phillips; (second row) coach Cindy Shannon, Ricardo Del Toro, Trevor Lines, Sam llen, Paul Kolotka, Jaymee Cole, Blake Wilhelmsen, Adam Shay, Molly Fruland, Bridget Gile, Jessi Ding, coach Craig Ortiz; (third row) Ian Bashor, Kevin Wending, Morgan Popidinski, Sara Sapsford, Harmony Alford, Grant Schluntz, Chloe Castelluccio, Alex Cook; (back row) Joey Leasure, Luke Terhall and Kelly Kolotka. Not pictured is coach Samantha Shannon. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Updated: June 14, 2012 7:22AM
10th at state
MORRIS — Twenty-five students from Morris High School competed May 5 in the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics State Math Contest at the University of Illinois.
The oral competition team of Jaymee Cole and Joey Leasure finished sixth place.
The Freshman-Sophomore Eight-Person Team finished in eighth place and included Ian Bashor, Chloe Castelluccio, Ricardo Del Toro, Jessi Ding, Sam Allen, Alex Cook, Kelly Kolotka and Trevor Lines.
The Junior-Senior Relay Team of Harmony Alford, Brian Bernier, Sean Phillips and Morgan Popidinski finished ninth, as did the Algebra I team of Ian Bashor, Chloe Castelluccio, Ricardo Del Toro, Jessi Ding, Bridget Gile and Adam Shay.
Morris finished 10th overall.
Theater finalist
FRANKFORT — An aspiring actor from Lincoln-Way East High School has caught a rare glimpse into Broadway.
Ryan Smetana was one of 24 high school students from Illinois picked to participate in the 2012 Illinois High School Musical Theater Awards and audition for an opportunity to participate in a performance enrichment program on Broadway.
“It was a great honor,” he said.
He, along with the 23 other finalists traveled to Chicago to learn the closing number from the Broadway hit “Jersey Boys” and to audition for the next phase of the competition.
“I was thrilled to work with the (cast members of “Jersey Boys”) and kids my own age who are going into similar college experiences and work experiences,” he said.
They performed the piece that night during the Illinois High School Musical Theater Awards ceremony.
“Even though I’m not going on (to New York), I feel like I’ve already won,” said Smetana. “It was such a great experience.”
Smetana plans to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he will study theater.
Design competition
LEMONT — For the fourth straight year, a team of Lemont High School students earned a top honor from one of the nation’s top architectural design contests.
Seniors Matt Kowalczyk, Matt Nilles, Brandon White, Josh Young and Tyler Zaremski competed at the 2012 Mock Firms Architectural Competition, and their firm — Young Architecture — shared “Top Firm Organization” honors in the contest’s National Skyscraper Challenge division.
The competition is sponsored by Chicago Architecture Today, the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Nicknamed the “hive” because of its resemblance to a honeycomb, the building developed by the team would have 80 floors in its tallest tower and soar to approximately 1,000 feet with its 200-foot antennae.
All of the participating students are enrolled in teacher Scott Duensing’s Advanced CAD III Honors course.
State science fair
CREST HILL — Richland Grade School eighth-grade students participated in the state science fair at the University of Illinois in Champaign.
They were:
Bradley Kozbiel — Silver Award
Nikkoh Mendoza — Silver Award
Grant Conklin — Gold Award
Rico Gonzalez — Gold Award
Alexis Polowski — Gold Award.
Central Students of Month
JOLIET — The Joliet Central Students of the Month for May are Miranda Lawson, Lions; Alecxis Maldonado, Kiwanis; Jose Salazar, Rotary.
