Haine Middle School Students are Academic Champions

At Monday's Seneca Valley School Board meeting, officials honored Emily Scanlan, Emily Winterhalter and Daniel Popp. The sixth-graders at all were named national champions at the National Academic Games Tournament in Kissimmee, Fla, earlier this month.

The district also had six top 10 finishes in both individual and team performances. 

In Academic Games, students try to out-think each other in the areas of math, language arts, and social studies. Throughout the year, Seneca Valley -- which has academic teams for students in sixth through 12th grade -- competes against schools from around the area in the hopes of qualifying as many students as possible for the national tournament.

According to Linda Andreassi, the distict's director of communications, bringing home a top-three Academic Games trophy is the equivalent of earning All-America honors for an athletic team.

Below is a summary of the students with top 50 individual performances and top three team standings:

            Name                                     Grade                        Place                                                 Event

Emily Scanlan                      6th – HMS            National Co-Champion                  LinguiSHTIKS

Emily Winterhalter             6th – HMS            National Co-Champion                   LinguiSHTIKS

Daniel Popp                         6th – HMS             National Champion                        Equations

Lucy Geronime                    6th – ECMS          3rd Place Individual                         Propaganda                                                                                                                                         

Sara Panetta                        6th – HMS            2nd Place Team                                  World Events

Sam Casey                           6th – HMS             2nd Place Team                                  World Events

Kyle Cindrich                     6th – HMS             2nd Place Team                                   World Events

Lauren Vozel                      6th – HMS            2nd Place Team                                   World Events

Emily Scanlan                    6th – HMS            2nd Place Team                                   World Events

Sarah Panetta                    6th – HMS            2nd Place Team                                    World Events

Michael Palaski                 8th                          5th Place Team                                     World Events

Mark Livingstone             8th                           5th Place Team                                     World Events

Laura Byko                        11th                          13th Place Individual                          World Events

Laura Byko                        11th                         28th Place Individual                         Presidents

Laura Byko                        11th                        29th Place Individual                        Propaganda

Kelly Cotton                      12th                     13th Place Individual                               World Events

Nick Cupelli                      12th                     41st Place Individual                                World Events

Matt Graf                           12th                    13th Place Individual                                World Events

Matt Graf                          12th                     15th Place Individual                         Presidents

Druv Kohli                        10th                    2nd Place Individual                                 World Events

Druv Kohli                        10th                     3rd Place Team                                         World Events

Druv Kohli                        10th                     3rd Place Team                                    Presidents

Druv Kohli                        10th                     20th Place Individual                         Presidents

Druv Kohli                        10th                      25th Place Individual                        Equations

Nikko Paserba                  10th                      43rd Place Individual                             World Events

Amanda Rossetti             12th                       33rd World Events                                 World Events

Jonathan Selling             1oth                        39th Place Individual                        LinguiSHTIKS

Andreassi said six teams also were one spot out of making the playoffs in the cube games, including LinguiSHTIKS, Equations, and On-Sets.