- Seneca Valley School District
- Overview
Academic Games Teams prevail in tournaments
The Seneca Valley Academic Games Team, divided into Elementary (grade 6), Middle (grades 7-8), Junior (grades 9-10) and Senior (grades 11-12) divisions, has been competing and earning several top awards at regional tournaments held throughout the winter.
On-Sets
The On-Sets tournament was held at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial on Dec. 17.
Seneca Valley Elementary Division competed against six other school districts and 80 students participated. Haine Middle School (HMS) teams placed first, second and fifth.
The first place team included Veronica Pimenova, Dawson Ward, Jackson Scherzer, Grace Hines and Ava Katzenell.
The second place teams included Michael Bardos, Eric Ristey, Ella Fulford, Eli Peel and Tanush Nelikil.
The fifth place team included Josh Miller, Meera Rathod, Anna Roberts, Jason Chen and Courtney Beals.
HMS national qualifiers with perfect scores were Josh Miller, Dawson Ward, Eric Ristey, Connor Allen and Ryder Quiggle.
Additional HMS national qualifiers included Greta Schmidt, David deVyver, Paul Amado, Tonya Gupta, Tanush Nelikil, Ella Fulford, Michael Bardos, Veronica Pimenova and Grace Hines.
Evans City Middle School (ECMS) teams placed fourth.
The fourth place team included Rachel Spear, Patrick Dolan, Daniel Simoes, Shanker Pillai and Nate Smith.
ECMS national qualifiers with perfect scores were John Barnyk and Nate Smith.
Additional ECMS national qualifiers included Daniel Simoes.
The Middle Division competed against four other school districts and placed first and second.
The first place team included Matt Murphy, Arya Nayak, Anoop Savio, benaifer Sepai and Renhan Xu.
The second place team included David Choi, Zach Garcia, Simren Jayaraman, Anaya Rao and Dean Smith.
David Choi, Zach Garcia, Kevin Peter Karatassos, Matt Murphy, Ananya Rao, Anoop Savio, Benaifer Sepai, Christian Williams, Brenna Wrubel and Renhan Xu qualified for nationals.
Seneca Valley’s Junior and Senior Division teams competed against six other schools.
Urvi Gupta, Shane Ruiz, Mark Livingstone, Rhea Kudtarkar, Jarrett Johnston, Jacob Johnston, Alex Garcia, and Rachel Covell were national qualifiers.
LinguiSHTIK
The LinguiSHTIK tournament was held on Jan. 27 at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.
Seneca Valley Elementary Division competed against four other school districts and 70 students participated.
Haine Middle School (HMS) teams placed first, second, third (tied), and fifth.
The first place team included Zach Aaron, Dawson Ward, Sienna Summers, Aidan Uher and Ava Katzenell.
The second place team included Anna Roberts, Paul Amado, Ella Fulford, Sydney Thompson and Ian Bilger.
The third place teams (tied) included Jackson Scherzer, Jonah Kriess, Sreya Padamati, David deVyver and Greta Schmidt; Veronica Pimenova, Grace Hines, Ryder Quiggle, Courtney Beals and Kevin Donaldson.
The fifth place team included Josh Miller, Andrew Loeffler, Tonya Gupta, Katie Payerchin and Jason Chen.
HMS national qualifiers with perfect scores were Dawson Ward, Sienna Summers, Aidan Uher, Sreya Padamati, Josh Miller, Ryder Quiggle and Ian Bilger.
Additional HMS national qualifiers included Zach Aaron, Jackson Scherzer, David deVyver, Greta Schmidt, Jason Chen, Veronica Pimenova, Kevin Donaldson, Anna Roberts, Ella Fulford, Sydney Thompson and Eric Ristey.
The Middle Division competed against five other school districts and placed first and second.
The first place team included Zach Garcia, Matt Murphy, Ananya Rao and Dilini Ranaweera. The second place team included Rob Appling, David Choi, Parker Logue, Benaifer Sepai and Dean Smith.
National qualifiers included Marc Amado, Harry Foss, Zach Garcia, Simren Jayaraman, Parker Logue, Ananya Rao, Dilini Renaweera, Benaifer Sepai and Dean Smith.
Seneca Valley’s Junior and Senior Division teams placed first and second.
The first place team included Jarrett Johnston, Angelo Giannotta, Alex Garcia, Brian Vogel and Jonathan Simoes.
The second place team included Urvi Gupta and Rhea Kudtarkar.
National qualifiers were Jarrett Johnston, Angelo Giannotta, Alex Garcia, Brian Vogel, Jonathan Simoes, Tori Beck and Urvi Gupta.
World Events
The World Events tournament was held on Feb. 24 at Seneca Valley Middle School.
The Elementary Division competed against five other school districts and 85 students participated. HMS placed first and third.
HMS first place team included Dawson Ward, Veronica Pimenova, Jackson Scherzer, Jason Chen and Aidan Uher.
The third place teams included Tonya Gupta, Ria Dietz, Sreya Padamati, Anna Roberts and Eric Ristey.
HMS national qualifiers consisted of Veronica Pimenova, Jackson Scherzer, Aidan Uher, Tonya Gupta, Sreya Padamati and Courtney Beals.
Nathan Smith and Shanker Pillai were national qualifiers for ECMS.
Seneca Valley’s Junior and Senior Division teams competed against six other schools and placed second.
The second place team comprised of Jacob Johnston, Jarrett Johnston and Brian Vogel.
National qualifiers included Mark Livingstone and Brian Vogel.
The National tournament will be held in Atlanta, Georgia this year on April 22 -26.
Academic Games Leagues of America (AGLOA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing “Thinking Kids” of character, excellence, and integrity. AGLOA provides a series of Academic Games competitions throughout the nation resulting in a national championship tournament in late April each year. Students who excel academically have a chance to compete and be rewarded for their accomplishments. Academic Games tournaments challenge students to use higher order thinking skills in the subjects of Language Arts, English, History and Mathematics. Players receive recognition and awards in the same way that sports champions are honored.