Eleven high school seniors from three Lawrence schools have been named National Merit Semifinalists.

Nationally, 16,000 students were selected as semifinalists in the competition, which eventually will award about 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards worth a total of $33.9 million.

From left are Lawrence High School students Rance Graham-Bailey, National Achievement Scholarship Semifinalist, and National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Michael Jordan, Bailey Pike, Marie Byleen-Higly and Matthew Rytting.

National Merit Scholarship Corp., based in Evanston, Ill., said 1.3 million students from about 21,000 high schools entered the 2005 competition.

Students in and around Douglas County who have been named semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., Evanston, Ill., include:

• Free State High School — Bill Berkowitz, Lauren Bornstein, Ben Chapin, James Davis, Jennifer Green and Flora Jiang.
• Lawrence High School — Marie Byleen-Highley, Michael Jordan, Bailey Pike and Matthew Rytting.


Lawrence Free State High School National Merit Scholar Semifinalists, back row from left, are Jed Davis, Ben Chapin and Bill Berkowitz. Front row from left are Flora Jiang, Lauren Bornstein and Jennifer Green.

• Bishop Seabury Academy — Caitlin Rose
• Baldwin High School — Sonja Combest and Grace Schroer.
• Shawnee Heights High School in Tecumseh — Nicholas Tobaben.
• Ottawa High School — Jennifer Harness.

The selection of semifinalists was based on standardized test scores. About 15,000 of the 16,000 will advance to the finalist level.