Ladue School’s Broadcast Technology program has partnered with St. Louis Public Schools, Gateway STEM High School and KSDK News Channel 5, for the past 15 years offering students from city and country schools a collaborative opportunity to create a Public Service Announcement. This year 7 students from Ladue and 8 students from Gateway STEM participated in the program.

Ladue Schools freshmen students Nikan Askari and Jamie Korenblat were a part of this year’s winning collaborative team, along with two students Gateway STEM. These students created the concept, pitched their idea to KSDK executives, starred in the filming, and took part in the editing process to create an awesome promotional commercial for KSDK’s mobile app.

See the video here!

Congratulations to Sophia “Sassy” Saleeby, a 6th grader at Ladue Middle School, and her brother, Jack Saleeby, a 3rd grader at Reed Elementary, for earning top scores in the St. Louis Post Dispatch Regional Spelling Bee Semi-Finals on Saturday, March 11. Both students will compete in the Finals at McKendree University on March 18!

Congratulations to the following students on their outstanding accomplishments at the Missouri State DECA Competition:

State Champions:
Ben Avigad (11), Automotive Services Marketing
Michael Burke (12), Food Marketing
Jake Gerardi (11) & Aidan Morley (11), Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making
Burhan Mubeen (12) & Nisha Naseer (12), Marketing Communications Team Decision Making

2nd Place:
Xinyu He (12), Business Finance
Emebte Atanaw (12) & Nicole Goeckner (12), Hospitality Services Team Decision Making

3rd Place:
Jessica Matson (12), Quick Serve Restaurant Management
Diane Mwonga (12) & Leanna Feng (12), Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan

Finalists:
Josh Horowitz (10), Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling
David Song (12), Financial Consulting
Thomas Xiong (11), Principals of Hospitality and Tourism
Anum Sameer (12), Business Finance
Noor Rahman (11), Business Services Marketing
Cloe Frank (12) & Kenan Elzoobi (12), Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making

Leadership Delegate:
Kaycee Little (11)

The seventh annual “Mr. Ladue Contest” was held at Ladue Horton Watkins High School Performing Arts Center with senior “Mr. Soccer” Teddy Vincent winning the coveted title. This year, 35 young men, chosen by their coaches and club sponsors, competed in minute-to-win-it games and talent roulette. The top 16 boys competed head-to-head in games like moving oranges across the stage using only their knees.

Once only eight boys remained in the competition, the activities moved on to talent roulette. The boys were given a random talent like lip-syncing, a dramatic reading of a rap song or creating an outfit from a selection of clothes and modeling that outfit. Teddy selected the talent of demonstrating a makeup tutorial.

The judges then chose the top four boys, who then answered interview questions. The judges selected their top two, who then competed in a dance-off and, Teddy was selected as the winner by the crowd.

The $8,085 raised through ticket sales will go directly to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater St. Louis!

More than 40 Ladue School District students competed at the Missouri State Chess Championships on Saturday, March 18, in Columbia, Missouri.

The high school team finished 3rd in their division, the LMS 8th and under team won their division, the LMS 6th grade and under team finished in 2nd place in their division, the Spoede team was 3rd in the 5th grade and under division and won the 3rd grade and under championship, and the Conway team finished in 2nd place in the 3rd and under division.

In addition, several students are state champions in their sections: Aaron Lin (Conway, 3rd grade and under), Benjamin Shoykhet (LMS, 8th grade and under), and Jason Pummer (LHWHS, High School Board 3).

Many of these students will be competing at the US Chess Federation SuperNationals VI tournament in Nashville in May!

Included below is the breakdown of the teams and their awards:

Third Grade and under division

• The Spoede Elementary team of Celina Zhou (3), Alex Zhang (1), Rex Zhu (3), Roy Zhu (1), Kevin Wu (1), Christopher Huang (3), Bodie Buxner (2) and Anish Shinde (KG) won the 3rd and under championship.
• The Conway Elementary team of Aaron Lin (2), Ayden Huang (1), Alex Wang (3) and Nylah Johnson (3) came in 2nd place in the 3rd and under division.
• Jenna Song (3) and Liam Garland from Reed Elementary finished in 10th place in the 3rd and under division.
• In the individual standings, Aaron Lin (2) won the 3rd grade and under division, Jenna Song (3) was 3rd, Celina Zhou (3) was 5th, Alex Zhang (1) was 6th, Rex Zhu (3) was 7th, Ayden Huang (1) was 15th, Roy Zhu (1) was 17th, Alex Wang (3) was 19th, Kevin Wu (1) was 23rd, Christopher Huang (3) was 37th, Liam Garland was 40th, Bodie Buxner (2) was 45th, Nylah Johnson (3) was 58th, and Anish Shinde (KG) was 59th.

Fifth Grade and under division

• In the 5th grade and under division, Atharva Shinde (4), Sahil Chatwal (4), Cooper Buxner (2) and Harper Buxner (4) (Spoede Elementary) finished in 3rd place.
• Zachary Barrett (5) (Ladue Fifth Grade Center) finished in 14th place in the team 5th and under division.
• In the 5th and under individual standings, Zachary Barrett (5) finished 5th, Atharva Shinde (4) was 13th, Sahil Chatwal (4) was 20th, Cooper Buxner (2) was 40th, and Harper Buxner (4) was 45th.

Middle School

• The Ladue Middle School 6th grade and under team of Andrew Teh (6), Yuvan Chali (6), Max Yang (6), Samuel Loiterstein (6), Allen You (6), Gil Weiss (6), and Andrew Stappenbeck (6) finished in 2nd place in the 6th and under division.
• In the 6th grade and under individual standings, Andrew Teh (6) finished 3rd, Yuvan Chali (6) was 13th, Max Yang (6) was 16th, Samuel Loiterstein (6) was 17th, Allen You (6) was 19th, Gil Weiss (6) was 21st, and Andrew Stappenbeck (6) was 33rd.
• The 8th grade and under team of Benjamin Shoykhet (6), Daniel Ye (7), Katie Eisenman (8), Joshua Fundler (7), Iris Zhou (7), Roshen Chatwal (7), Alex Rybak (7), Kanishk Shanmugam (7), Arya Bhushan, and Domenic Fenoglio (7) won the 8th and under division.
• In the 8th grade and under individual standings, Benjamin Shoykhet (6) finished 1st, Daniel Ye (7) was 4th, KatieEisenman (8) was 5th, Joshua Fundler (7) was 6th, Iris Zhou (7) was 7th, Roshen Chatwal (7) was 13th, Alex Rybak (7) was 16th, Kanishk Shanmugam (7) was 25th, Arya was 28th, and Dominic Fenoglio (7) was 31st.

High School

• The LHWHS team of Zachary Millsap (12), Thomas Xiong (11), Jason Pummer (9), Yan Rybak (11), and Sophie Kras (9) finished in 3rd place in the High School division.
• In the high school individual standings, Zachary Millsap (12) finished in 7th place on Board 1, Thomas Xiong (11) was 2nd on Board 2, Jason Pummer (9) finished 1st on Board 3, Yan Rybak (11) was 13th on Board 4, and Sophie Kras (9) was 28th on Board 4.

To view the full tournament results, visit the Gateway Chess website.

Over spring break, our outstanding high school wrestling team was busy earning significant recognitions! Junior Jacob Orsay was named Wrestler of the Year. Eric Prager, Kyle Cody, Kendall Whited, Leor Goldfarb and Carrinton Reed all make the Suburban Central First String All Conference Team. This happened under the guidance and coaching of Kevin Clawson, who was named the Wrestling Coach of the Year for his efforts. Well done, and well deserved, Kevin! See the stats here!

However, that isn’t the best part. About a month ago, Athletic Director Sweeney Labarge and received a letter from the Coach of Hannibal High School Wrestling Team. He wanted to share a situation at districts. Here is what the Hannibal coach wrote:

“During the 182 pound semi-final match, my wrestler was wrestling Leor Goldfarb. We were winning 7-0 and taking down Mr. Goldfarb when we illegally slammed him. Since we slammed him, Mr. Goldfarb could have been awarded the win, and would have automatically been a state qualifier. Instead of taking the win, Mr. Goldfarb and Coach Clawson decided to do a start stop of the match to go ahead and give my kid the win so he could advance. Both individuals were aware that they were giving up a guaranteed spot at the state tournament and that Mr. Goldfarb would have to wrestle back in order to qualify. I am not sure how many individuals and coaches would make the same decision. It takes an enormous amount of character and class to make a decision like this. Both Coach Clawson and Mr. Goldfarb demonstrated they obviously have both!

I have been coaching wrestling for 16 years now. I have seen many kids default for a lot less to guarantee themselves a win. They are both excellent representatives of your school as well as their wrestling program.” — Derek Greening

Character + Hard Work = Success Success comes in many forms.

Congratulations to Kevin and his team for their championship wrestling performance this season, but more importantly for winning with character!

The Ladue Schools high school boys basketball team have finished a spectacular season! The team rounded out the season with four All-Conference recognitions from the St. Louis Suburban Public High School Athletic and Activities Association, including three seniors being named to the All-Conference teams and one junior receiving the Sportsmanship award.

According to head coach Chad Anderson, one or two players typically makes one of the two All-Conference teams each year, but having three players receive the recognition is rare. This year, senior River Rhoads made the first All-Conference team, and seniors Tate Hotz and Zach Bush both made the second team. Junior Josh Horwitz received the Sportsmanship award.

“Throughout this entire season, our players have strived to represent the basketball program and our school well,” Coach Anderson said. “It’s so gratifying as the coach to see them succeed and be recognized not only for their hard work but also their good character and sportsmanship.”

Several players also received the All-Academic award, bestowed from the high school for maintaining a GPA of 3.75 of higher. Four varsity players achieved this, including junior Joshua Horwitz, senior Jack Lucier, junior Derrick Stiebler and sophomore Moses Okpala. Six members of the JV Boys Basketball team three freshmen basketball players also received the award.

Congratuluations to junior Kaylon Buckner on a fantastic comeback at the Webster-Kirkwood Invitational for lacrosse! Check out the article run in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch here.

Congratulations to Ladue Middle School 8th grade student Darren Teh for starting this golf season with a 2nd place finish at the Gateway PGA Junior tour. The tournament was held on April 2 at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Godfrey, Illinois. Darren competed against other best junior golfers around the greater St. Louis area.

Darren is currently a member of USA Junior National Golf Team of St. Louis Chapter and had three top 3 finishes at the local PGA Junior tour last year. He also represented the St. Louis chapter competing against other raising star golfers around the country in a three-day national event last summer in Atlanta, Georgia.

Darren will play at the Ballyneal Golf Club at Holyoke, Colorado, this summer with the USA Junior National Golf team and other PGA Junior tour events for the season. We wish him the best of luck!

In February, nine Ladue Middle School students qualified at the regional Chapter Round of the MathCounts competition to advance to the Missouri State Round. MathCounts is the premier mathematics competition for middle-school students. At the Chapter Round, Samuel Chen (7) placed first among all students in the Individual Round, while William Xie (8) earned first place honors in the lightning quick Countdown Round. Also, the four-person team of Stephen Jiang (8), Jason Ding (8), Anthony Wang (7), and Will Bender (7) placed 1st in the team competition.

One month later, on March 4, the LMS MathCounts students were dominant in the Missouri State MathCounts Competition.

The same team of Stephen Jiang (8), Jason Ding (8), Anthony Wang (7), and Will Bender (7) placed 1st in the team competition. In the State Countdown round, Anthony Wang (7) took 2nd, and William Pan (8) placed 4th.

Nine LMS students participated in the Individual competition, all of whom placed in the Top 20. On this particular day, seven of the Top 10 Math kids in the state are Ladue Schools students.

Here are the students and their final positions. Note that the Top 4 finishers (three from Ladue Schools) make up the Missouri team that competes in the National MathCounts competition in Orlando in May. Stephen Jiang (8), Anthony Wang (7) and Jason Ding (8) have earned an all-expense paid trip to Orlando.

1) Stephen Jiang (8)
2) Anthony Wang (7)
3) Jason Ding (8)
5) Will Bender (7)
7) William Pan (8)
9) Samuel Chen (7)
10) William Xie (8)
16) Marina Sha (8)
18) Iris Zhou (7)

All nine graduating senior girls of the Girls’ and two graduating senior boys of the Boys’ Swimming & Diving teams at Ladue Horton Watkins High School earned All American Academic status with the National Interscholastic Coaches Association (NISCA) for achieving an average cumulative GPA of 3.75 or greater for the first seven semesters of their high school careers!

As a class of graduating seniors, the senior girls’ team captains Sophia Garland, Taylor Korte and Anna Reichert, and seniors Elizabeth Collinger, Sarah Green, Olivia Jurgiel, Marisa Pummer, Nicole Thompson, and Anna Waltke achieved an average cumulative GPA of 3.975.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that these nine seniors, together with 18 underclass varsity letter recipients of the Girls’ Swimming & Diving Team, earned a cumulative average GPA of 3.838 to be a GOLD Level (3.750-4.000) All American Scholar Team with NISCA.

While current year rankings will not be available until after the June 15 submission deadline, last year’s 2015-2016 Girls’ team ranked 32nd nationally with a cumulative average GPA of 3.821 out of 16,432 of girls’ and boys’ high school aquatic programs with over 342,294 participating students. Approximately 2% of these students are recognized as high school All Americans.

And on the Boys’ side, senior boys’ team captain Cedrick Everaert and senior Michael Heins earned the same All American Academic Honor while combining with 22 underclass varsity letter recipients of the Boys’ Swimming & Diving Team to achieve a cumulative average GPA of 3.698, earning them a SILVER Level (3.500-3.749) All American Scholar Team, following a 34th national ranking last year (2015-2016).

The 18 underclass varsity letter recipients of the Girls’ Swimming & Diving Team are: Elisa Bailey (10), Emerson Barnett (9), Harriett Bezzant (9), Sarah Crews (11), Mya Danforth (10), Riley Deutsch (11) , Sophie Fredman (9), Becca Friedman (11), Melanie Gould (9), Joanne Jurgiel (10), Leda Liang (11), Lena Liang (9), Erin McKenzie (11), Maddie Milton (10), Paige Mitchell (10), Kela Munnerlyn (11), Izzy Orsay (9) and Monty Rickey (10).

The 22 underclass varsity letter recipients of the Boys’ Swimming & Diving Team are: Alex Benduski (11), Dixon Bezzant (11), Shrey Dharnidharka (11), Noah Douaihy (12), Jacob Elliott (12), Avery Fredman (11), Luyi Gao (10), Joel Hsieh (11), Ayush Kaw (11), Alex Krasnoff (10), Nathaniel Marsters (10), Brandon Murdock (11), Iyayi Ogbevoen (12), Michael Raskin (11), Reid Rogers (11), Parkes Rowe (11), Jacob Sheldon (9), Kenji Sherman (12), Austin Szweda (12), Noah Unger (9), Brandon Yan (10), and Christopher Ye (9).

This weekend, the state Science Olympiad competition was held at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and the high school team finished in first place! Out of the 23 events, there were only two that did not place in the top five. The team finished with a total of 60 points. The second place team finished with 106 points, and the third place team had a total in the 120s. The lowest score wins, and this was quite a feat! The team will now head to the national competition at Wright State University in Ohio in mid May.

This high school bunch is such a special group of students. This past August, they set a goal, as a team, to not only qualify for the national competition, but to place higher than Ladue Horton Watkins High School has ever finished at nationals (In 2008, LHWHS finished in 16th place). This year, the students are shooting for the top 10, but would probably be pleased to set the school record finishing anywhere in the top 15. “There is still much to be done because the competition at the national level is absolutely amazing,” Coach Mark Biernbaum said. “However, I know the team will be up for the challenge!”

Luke Biernbaum (12)
Abhay Cashikar (11)
Justin Chen (11)
Anna Cramblitt (12)
Noah Goldman (11)
Kevin Jiang (10)
Akhil Kondepudi (10)
Annie Liu (11)
Charlie Loitman (11)
Patrick Naughton (12)
Seema Patil (10)
Raj Paul (10)
Katie Shaw (9)
Jackie Zeng (10)
Stephanie Zhong (12)

Congratulations to the following Ladue Middle School students on earning a Superior rating at the St. Louis Suburban Music Educators Association’s Solo and Ensemble Festival this past weekend!

Seth Goldman (8), bassoon solo
Daphne Levy (8), flute solo
Melody Zhang (8), flute solo
Sophia Liu (7), flute solo
Daphne Levy (8) and Melody Zhang (8), flute duet

Saturday was a big day for the Ladue Middle School mathletes! At the regional Missouri Council of Teacher of Mathematics competition in February, 23 of the 24 LMS students who participated qualified for state. Due to conflicts, only 14 of these students were able to compete Saturday. There were 220 students representing 59 schools at the state competition, and the students representing LMS were awesome!

The LMS team of Will Bender (7), Anthony Wang (7), Samuel Chen (7), and William Xie (8) placed first in the state sweepstakes competition and 3rd in the national rankings.

In the overall individual category, five of the top 10 were from LMS: Will Bender (7) 1st, Anthony Wang (7) 2nd, Samuel Chen (7) 5th, William Xie (8) 6th and Richie Jiang (6) 9th.

Following are the results by grade levels for the students who scored in the top 10 for each grade:

6th grade – Richie Jiang (6) 1st, Nicole Li (6) 2nd, Luke Tu (6) 5th, Olivia Hu (6) 6th, Yuvan Chali (6) 7th

7th grade – Will Bender (7) 1st, Anthony Wang (7) 2nd, Samuel Chen (7) 3rd

8th grade – William Xie (8) 3rd

Also participating were Megan Ouyang (6), Winston Chen (7), Hansika Sakshi (7), Louis Li (8), and Lauren Xie (8). Congratulations to all of these students!

This past Saturday, the middle school music students rocked the St. Louis Suburban Music Educators Association’s Solo and Ensemble Festival!

Congratulations to the 44 7th and 8th grade orchestra students (all listed below) who participated in the festival. The orchestras were represented by 15 solos, six duos, three trios and six quartets!

Also, congratulations to the following 8th grade students who performed vocal solos! Jameson Falconer, Lilian Fisher, Julia Joseph and Ron Weiss received a Superior rating. Udonne Eke-Okoro and Alejandra Pinon-Dickey earned an Excellent rating.

“All of these students put in extra time and effort in their preparation, and I’m very proud of them,” Vocal Music Director for 8th Grade Choir Tom Lowery said.

Participating Orchestra Students:

Varsha Arun (7), Quartet, Excellent
Arya Bhushan (7), Solo, Excellent; Quartet
Nyeal Biedenstein (7), Duo, Superior; Quartet, Excellent
Hugh Chan (8), Quartet, Superior
Christopher Chen (7), Solo, Superior; Quartet, Excellent
Suparna Chintha (7), Solo; Duo
Caroline Cislo (7), Quartet, Excellent
John Cramblitt (7), Solo, Superior; Quartet
Jane Derdoy (7), Quartet
Jackson Diblasi (7), Quartet, Excellent
Diya Diwakaran (8), Solo
Julia Gourtzelis (7), Trio
Colin Henderson (7), Quartet
Tommy Hogan (8), Trio, Superior
Grace Hu (8), Quartet, Superior
Avinash Kamath (7), Duo, Excellent
Matthew Kweon (7), Duo, Excellent
Roland LaBonte (8), Solo, Excellent, Quartet, Superior
Ryan Lam (8), Solo, Excellent; Trio, Excellent
Matthew Levy (8), Trio, Excellent
Samuel Liu (7), Quartet, Excellent
Vivian Liu (7), Quartet
Charlotte Madden (7), Trio, Excellent
Bix Maxwell (7), Solo, Excellent; Quartet, Excellent
Benedikt Nagele (7), Quartet, Excellent
Lily Parsons (7), Quartet
Hansika Sakshi (7), Trio
Kathryn Schneider (8), Quartet, Superior
Sophie Seidel (8), Solo; Duo
Ryan Silver (7), Duo, Excellent
Andrew Smock (7), Quartet, Excellent
Noah Smock (8), Duo, Superior
Akshara Sriram (7), Solo
Joanne Sung (7), Quartet
Darren Teh (8), Trio, Superior
Ryan Tung (7), Solo, Superior; Quartet
Kade Vetter (7), Solo, Excellent; Duo, Superior, Quartet
Athena Vinch (8), Duo
Benjamin Wang (8), Duo, Superior
Joshua Wolk (8), Trio, Superior

Congratulations to the winners of the Old Bonhomme Science Fair! These students will participate in the Greater St. Louis Science Fair later this month at Queeny Park.

2nd Grade:
Sophie Baum and Emme Hirsch (2K)
Noah Murov (2K)

3rd Grade:
Amelia Drake (3M)
Brandon Barrett (3P)

4th Grade:
Oliver Stern (4P)

This year, 31 projects were submitted, and 14 of those were blue ribbon winners (1st place)!

Results for the 2017 Missouri Council of Teacher of Mathematics (MCTM) competition were just announced, and Old Bonhomme students all shone! Congratulations to Henry Goellner (3) for winning first place in the Computer Generated Design category, and Congratulations to Bella Soyfer (4) for winning first place in the Tesselation category for their age group.

Congratulations to the following students for their placements, as well:

• Vivek Maddineni – Fourth Place, 3rd grade Tesselations
• Ayla Tunay – Second Place, 4th grade Tesselations
• Lucia Kerman – Fourth Place, 4th grade Tesselations
• Eva Kaul – Second Place, 3rd grade Computer Generated Designs
• Cole Kaufman – Third Place, 3rd grade Computer Generated Designs

Way to represent Old Bonhomme!

This week at Conway Elementary, the students took to the sidewalk out front to create motivational messages with chalk for MAP testing! Check out the pictures and video included below!

Ladue Horton Watkins High School students participated in and won the upper division of the National Economics Challenge (NEC), the nation’s most prestigious high school economics competition!

There are two divisions: the upper (Adam Smith) and the lower (David Ricardo). The upper division is for AP, IB and Honors students. The lower division is for general Economics students participating for the first time.

The team won the upper division and will compete in the National Semi-Finals! The students are: David Song (12), Philip Adams (12), Patrick Naughton (12) and Alex Tan (12).

Each year, over 10,500 students across the U.S. participate in the competition. The Challenge recognizes exceptional high school students for their knowledge of economic principles and their ability to apply problem-solving and critical-thinking skills to real-world events.

The speech and debate team competed in the MSHSAA Speech and Debate State Tournament at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri this past weekend!

• Levi Dyson (11) and Edward Wu (11) were ranked 9th after four preliminary rounds of Public Forum Debate.
• Patrick Naughton (12) and Aramis Rickey (12) placed 3rd in Policy Debate.
• Maya Mutic (12) placed 2nd in International Extemporaneous Speaking.
• Patrick Naughton (12) placed 2nd in United States Extemporaneous Speaking.