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

Free State High School National Merit semifinalists are, from left, Molly Krishtalka, Kyle Chauvin, Linda Green and Stephanie Herpich. Not pictured is Gregory Gaumer.

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 million.

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

Free State High School – Kyle Chauvin, Gregory Gaumer, Linda Green, Stephanie Herpich and Molly Krishtalka.

Lawrence High School National Merit semifinalists are, from left, Thora Whitmore, Daniel Zehr, Chris Bohling, Chad Buck, Jordan Crice and Brenna Daldorph.

Lawrence High School – Christopher Bohling, Chad Buck, Jordan Crice, Brenna Daldorph, Thora Whitmore and Daniel Zehr.

Home-school – Rebekah Kepple in Lawrence and Aaron Duerksen in De Soto.

Baldwin High School – Lynne Lammers.

Ottawa High School – Danielle Morgan.

Shawnee Heights High School, in Tecumseh – Joseph McCracken, Erin Risch, Ryan Schirmer and Jamie Stinson.

Tonganoxie High School – Micah Titterington.

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