Thirteen local seniors have advanced in the annual National Merit scholarship competition.

All seven National Merit semifinalists from Lawrence High School, all five semifinalists from Free State High School and the semifinalist from Bishop Seabury Academy have advanced to “finalist” standing in the competition for National Merit awards.

LHS Merit Scholarship finalists are Rebecca Dirks, Anthony Frei, Sam Huneke, Kate Mather, Jeff Standing and Baoqing Zhou. Steven Glasker, another LHS senior, advanced as a finalist in the National Merit Achievement Scholarship Competition.

FSHS finalists for Merit Scholarships are Jennifer Brooks, Benjamin Greenberg, Jing Li, Heidi Tenpas and Penelope Tsatsoulis.

The Bishop Seabury finalist for Merit Scholarship is Laura Gauch.

More than 1.3 million students entered the Merit Program when they were juniors by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Scholarship winners were to be announced starting Wednesday and continue through May.