Summit Hill Chess Team Finishes Strong At State Tournament

FRANKFORT, IL — The Summit Hill Junior High Chess team had a strong showing at the IESA State Chess tournament in Peoria Feb. 28 and 29. The district said out of 57 schools, the seventh grade Spartans finished in 11th place, while the eighth grade team finished in 12th place.

Ryan Hagen, a math teacher at Summit Hill Junior High School, has been running the chess
program for 11 years and has had teams compete at state for all ten years that the IESA has had a
tournament, according to the district.

“The team really stepped up. We had some good players that were unable to make the tournament, but we have a deep team and our kids didn’t miss a beat! Coach Vilatte and I are really proud of them,” Hagen said in a release.

Steve Vilatte has also been helping the Summit Hill Chess team for seven years.

The eighth grade team was led by Luke Trotter, who won five games, the district said. Divya Thumu and Nick Overocker won four games. Sebastian Avila won three and drew one, while David Jensen and Nathan Webster added three points each. Molly Trotter scored 2.5 points and held the record for the longest games played during the tournament.

The district said the seventh grade team was led by Sam Hernandez, Matthew Hoppenrath and Matthew Ni, who each won four games. Dominic Governale won three times and drew another. Tyler Drexel, Eddie Kuhnhofer and Daniel Sinde also added three points each.