Eighteen St. Johns County seniors have qualified as National Merit Semifinalists for 2011, the highest number ever in the district.

These students placed among the top one percent of all students in the country taking the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test given annually to high school juniors. As eighteen of 16,000 semifinalists nationwide, they are now eligible to advance to the finalist competition to vie for 8,000 scholarships worth more than $32 million.

The semifinalists are Lesleigh Craddock, Ashton Dumdei and Dylan Moring from Bartram Trail High School; Julianna Betbeze from Creekside High School; Brian Bell, Katherine Bottenhorn, Elizabeth Darden, Andrew Loferski, Gabriel Padilla, Meredith Robinson, Brad Roche and Andrew Yurko from Nease High School; Sean Buchanan, George De Roziere, Ryan Hussin, Lydia Lichlyter and William Meadow from Ponte Vedra High School; and Tobias Merkle from St. Augustine High School.

Tristan Banta, a student at Nease High School, is also a semifinalist in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, an academic competition for African-American high school students.

In addition to these semifinalists, St. Johns County had 20 Commended Students who scored among the top five percent of all students in the country on the PSAT. These students include Hayley Cooper, Cassidy Langford and James Mancino from Bartram Trail High School; Kimberly Triplett from Creekside High School; Justin Lengyel from Pedro Menendez High School; Audra Coleman, Mitchell Elder, Katherine Hill, Ariel Koren, Matt Krepp, Courtney Ligon and  Zachary Young from Nease High School; Caitlin Eastland, James Edwards, Alayna Erhard, Jessica May, William Russell and Elana Selinger from Ponte Vedra High School; and Erin Brownett and Zachary Lemke from St. Augustine High School.

All of these students were recognized at the October 12 School Board meeting.