For the Reporter

With two bus loads of 74 enthusiastic science students, Meridian Middle School in Kent broke the record for the most students from one school at the 56th annual Washington State Science and Engineering Fair (WSSEF) on April 6 at Bremerton High School.

Based on number of students and awards, Meridian won traveling trophies for both the Junior High School of the Year and School of the Year awards.

Individually, first-place trophies went to: Luke Kenneally, Carolyn Phung, Jayneel Kumar, Arman Gill, Lee Jacob Macatagnay, Nathan Shepard, Juin Yeh, Timothy Onisor, Hayden Hellriegel, Kyle Imus, Simone Matthews, Moises Rocha-Zerpa, Jada Brown, Lindsay Bell, Delaney Matthews, Sarina Sarai, Karina Russu, Sarah Cortines, Lizbeth Herrera, Joseph Sibolboro, Ian Winter, Gavin Michaels, Kendra Campbell, Bryanna Raap, Sarah Strenge, Zulema Duenas Torres, Avry Freaney and Heather Yackel.

Second-place honors went to: Anissa Madani, Shasta Bello, Ascabena Habtamu, Samantha Dumont, Natasha Nieman , Alyssa Thacker, Devin Terada, Rajpreet Dhaliwal, Weston Renninger, Amy Huether, Shay McQueen, Megan Pilmoca, Rajdeep Singh, Brieanna Hernandez, Niko Abutin, Caden Wilkes, Miko Curry Edwards, Alex Miller, Kaleb Gladman, Naomi LaJoye.

Third-place honors went to: Reem Slim, Zvezdi Krasteva, Tyler Sykes, Christian Hamilton, Parker Welch, Quinn LeDosquet, Carlos Manzo, Derrick Derricks, Naji Muhammad, Tabetha Hollingsworth, Ekram Abdi, Su-Ad Ali, Harmandeep Kaur, Ryan Malmassari, Spencer Clifton.

Honorable mentions included: Morgan Wilson, Rachel Canning, Chandler Larson, Madison Barak.

Meridian students also won two special awards: The Medicine for Human Benefit Award to Carolyn Phung, and the Museum of Flight Award to Luke Kenneally.

Also

Ray Maung of Kentwood High School was one of three students on a team that took the top gold award at WSSEF and will receive an expense paid trip to represent the state at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair in Phoenix on May 12-18. Maung’s teammates are Rian Chandra from Capital High in Olympia and Jake Hecla from Aviation High in Des Moines.