Stevenson Daily Digest - April 22, 2019
Jim Conrey
Stevenson Daily Digest - Monday, April 22, 2019
Follow Stevenson on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, and at d125.org. Want to see previous editions of the Digest? Visit the Daily Digest archive.
Senior Named Presidential Scholar Semifinalist
Senior Melanie Wang is one of 21 students from Illinois named semifinalists in the 2019 U.S. Presidential Scholars competition sponsored by the Department of Education. She is the only semifinalist from Lake County.
Becoming a semifinalist is extremely difficult. Of approximately 3.5 million graduating high school seniors, only about 5,300 were identified as candidates for the program. Melanie was one of 14 Stevenson seniors named Presidential Scholar candidates in January. She was joined on the list by Chase Duvall, Adam Elkins, Samarth Goel, Devanshi Gupta, Andrew Huang, Jason Huang, Jessica Keane, Rohit Mandava, Aniket Nuthalapati, Rahul Ramkumar, Samuel Roytburd, Hunter Stroming and Hannah Zhang.
The program annually honors 161 students. The majority, 121, will be selected based on overall academic achievement. Twenty will be chosen for academic and artistic scholarship in the visual or performing arts or creative writing, and another 20 will be picked for outstanding scholarship and accomplishment in career and technical education.
Presidential Scholars will be announced in early May, and they will be recognized in June in Washington, D.C.
Since the program’s founding in 1964, five Stevenson students have been named Presidential Scholars: David Hou (2018), Kathy Xiang (2017), Vivian Wang (2013), Zach Blumenfeld (2011) and Michele Trickey (2006).
Former Club Sponsor Heading to Prison
A Glenview man who served briefly as a Stevenson club sponsor was sentenced last week to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to criminal sexual assault and disseminating child pornography. Matthew Joseph Laird, 34, admitted to sexually assaulting a minor in 2008, then assaulting her again approximately four years later. In the latter incident, Laird videotaped the assault and uploaded it to the internet. During a raid on his home in October, police reportedly found several hundred images of child pornography and videos.
Laird served as a co-sponsor of Stevenson’s Scholastic Bowl team during the 2016-17 school year, and also officiated at one Scholastic Bowl competition at SHS during the 2017-18 school year. He was never employed as a teacher or support staff member at the school, and SHS officials say they have no reason to believe that any of Laird’s crimes involved Stevenson students.
Bass Fishers Take 3 of top 10 Spots at Tournament
Stevenson’s bass fishing team took three of the top 10 places at last week’s Grant High School tournament. SHS had three of the 31 boats in the competition, which featured nearly all of the high school bass fishing teams in northern Illinois. The top team of Jason Qualich and Cam Grisamore finished fourth with 4.53 pounds of fish. Jack Grisamore and Michael Crawford placed fifth with 4.48 pounds, and Will Votapka and Michael Carlson were eighth with 2.62 pounds. The team competes again Tuesday out of Ben Watts Marina on the Chain O’Lakes.
Click here for today’s athletic schedule
Saturday’s Varsity Results
Girls Water Polo
Stevenson hosted Varsity Classic: The Patriots (21-0) beat Michigan’s fourth-ranked team, Okemos, by a 15-6 score to stretch their winning streak to 54 consecutive games. SHS defeated another Michigan school, Grandville, 16-1 earlier in the day, and finished the two-day tournament 4-0. Eleanor Michaud and Lauren Maloney led Stevenson in scoring both games, with four goals against Grandville and three versus Okemos. Shreya Sreedhar had three goals against Grandville and five on the day while Maddie Meirhaeghe had four goals overall. Anna Mossakowski and Maggie Bauwens split time at goalie, with each making eight saves. Stevenson’s last loss was a 14-11 decision to Lyons Township on March 10, 2018, when Anna, Eleanor and state player of the year Claire Haas (Class of 2018), now at USC, were attending an Olympic Development National tryout.
Boys Tennis
Stevenson at Buffalo Grove Bison Invitational: Zach Kim won the No. 1 singles title and the team of Payton Adkisson and Daniel Tulchinskiy claimed the No. 1 doubles flight as the Patriots captured the tournament championship. Zach posted a 6-0, 6-0 victory in his title match, while Payton and Daniel upset Glenbrook North’s top duo, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, for the doubles crown. Stevenson defeated GBN in the team standings, 44-38. Ozzie Viswanathan rallied to win the No. 2 singles title (2-6, 6-2, 6-0), while Thomas Gong and Kevin Fei rolled to a 6-0, 6-2 decision for the No. 3 doubles championship. Andy Dong and Arjun Sheelvanth were second at No. 2 doubles, while Nicholas Stec was second at No. 3 singles. - Daily Herald
Girls Soccer
Stevenson 2, Maine South 0: Jenny Staten made four saves to earn her ninth shutout of the season as the Patriots (11-1-2) captured their sixth consecutive game. Myah Schoolman converted a penalty kick for the only goal of the first half, and Kalyssa VanZanten scored off an assist from Kristin Hill in the second. The victory capped a stretch of five road games in seven days.
Boys Water Polo
Stevenson at Niles West Invitational: The fourth-ranked Patriots won all three of their matches in Skokie, beating the host school (19-3), Fremd (12-3) and St. Charles East (16-2). Dima Kobets scored 13 goals on the day, including six against Niles West. Drew Wangard scored eight goals. Alex Mitchell made seven saves against Fremd. - Illpolo.com
Baseball
Stevenson 9, Romeoville 2: Hayden Brotz hit a two-run home run, went 3-for-3, and pitched a scoreless inning as the host Patriots (11-5) stopped the Spartans in non-league action. Hayden’s homer capped a four-run third inning that gave SHS a 6-0 lead. Joey Little drove in three runs, Chris Farina was 3-for-4, and Brandon Ward went 2-for-3 with an RBI double. Six Patriots pitched in the game, holding Romeoville to three hits while striking out five and walking none. Starting pitcher Eli Fishbein picked up the win, throwing two hitless innings and striking out three. - GameChanger.com, Daily Herald
Friday’s Varsity Results
Boys Track and Field
Stevenson at Bob Cohoon Invitational: Jahleel Perrin won the 100-meter dash (10.91) and finished second in the 200 (22.60) to pace the Patriots at Downers Grove South. Jahleel also ran in the third-place 400 relay (44.32) with Jordan Vincent, Jimmy Davis and Chris Xie. Jordan placed third in the 400 (51.87) and was fifth in the 200 (22.89). Maema Njongmeta took second in discus (153 feet), while Dan Erdenetsogt was fifth (139-10). Anand Batbaatar finished fifth in shot put (51-0). SHS finished fifth out of 14 teams. - Official Results
Girls Water Polo
Stevenson hosted Varsity Classic: The Patriots (19-0) knocked off two of the top three ranked teams in Michigan to kick off their annual eight-team, two-day tournament featuring four schools from the Wolverine State and four from the Land of Lincoln. SHS, the top ranked team in Illinois, opened the tourney by defeating second-ranked Hudsonville (12-6), then rolled past third-ranked Rockford (19-7) later in the day. With the victories, Stevenson extended its consecutive games winning streak to 52.
Thursday’s Varsity Results
Girls Soccer
Stevenson 12, Zion-Benton 0: The Patriots (10-1-2 overall, 2-0 NSC) scored eight times in the first half, and only allowed one shot on goal for the entire contest in Zion. Kalyssa VanZanten scored four goals, three coming in the first half, while Gracie Wingfield added three goals and assisted on another. Madison Kim recorded a pair of goals and one assist, and Kristin Hill had a goal and two assists. Myah Schoolman and Alyssa Bende each scored a goal and added an assist. Emma Ramagnano had two assists, while Tess Koleno and Abby Kalou also had an assist. Jenny Staten and Nikki Kolze combined for the shutout, with Nikki turning away the only shot on goal.
Boys Tennis
Stevenson 7, Mundelein 0: The Patriots (9-1) rolled on the road for their eight straight victory. Eric Perkowski (6-0, 6-0), Nicholas Stec (6-1, 6-0) and Gabriel Visotsky (6-0, 6-0) won in singles. The doubles tandems were Daniel Tulchinskiy and Payton Adkisson (6-0, 6-0), Arjun Sheelvanth and Andy Dong (6-0, 6-0), Kevin Fei and Thomas Gong (6-0, 6-1) and Christopher Yang and Michael Kim (6-0, 6-2).
Girls Badminton
Stevenson 18, Libertyville 0: The visiting Patriots (19-0) met little resistance in winning their 42nd consecutive match. The winners in singles were Shibani Ram (21-11, 21-9), Kaitlyn Lu (21-11, 21-9), Jyotsna Harikrishna (21-3, 21-5), Emily Hu (21-2, 21-3), Jenny Yang (21-3, 21-4), Benna Li (21-8, 21-3), Megan Wei (21-8, 21-5), Giuli Nagai (21-12, 21-3), Julie Zhu (21-8, 21-14), Veronica Liu (21-7, 17-21, 21-7), Riya Gyanmote (21-13, 21-13) and Roshini Merneedi (21-12, 21-16). The doubles decisions came from Jenny and Emily (21-1, 21-3), Benna and Jyotsna (21-11, 21-7), Kaitlyn and Shibani (21-5, 21-16), Julie and Megan (21-18, 21-8), Giuli and Veronica (21-12, 21-9), and Riya and Roshini (21-7, 21-12).
Boys Volleyball
Stevenson hosted SHS Triad: The Patriots defeated Niles Notre Dame (25-18, 25-18) and Machesney Park Harlem (25-6, 25-9) in the Sports Center to improve to 17-5 on the season. Justin Ross posted a team-high nine kills against Notre Dame, while Wally Wormser led the squad with eight against Harlem. Will Sorenson had 35 assists on 63-of-64 setting on the night. SHS was highly efficient offensively, with a .396 attack percentage on 91 attempts. - NFHS Network Replay
Girls Track and Field
Stevenson at Glenbrook South Invitational: The team of Maxine Tam, Caimin Xi, Alivia Alton and Kendall Roberts won the 3,200-meter relay (10:33.11), helping the Patriots to finish fourth out of eight teams in Glenview. Miffy Tani was second in the 100-meter hurdles (17.37), and the 800-meter relay team of Jade Cadichon, Hailey Peterson, Raeden Mays and Jordan Tollison placed third (1:55.03). Five Pats placed fourth in their individual events: Emily Ossentjuk in the 100 (13.48), Emily Fejes in the 1,600 (5:54.80), Michelle Yu in the 3,200 (12:30.59), Maddie Kadens in the long jump (15 fee, 1 inch), and Caimin in the 800 (2:41.38). Alivia was fifth in the 800 (2:45.02), while other fifth-place finishes came from Lindsey Hendler in the 400 (1:06.29), Jessica Zhang in the triple jump (30-8), and the 1,600 relay team of Lindsey, Alivia, Emily and Maxine (4:39.87). - Official Results
Boys Gymnastics
Stevenson at Independent Conference Meet: At Wheaton Warrenville South, Jack White finished third in the vault (9.2) to propel the Patriots to a eighth-place finish among 13 teams. SHS posted a final team score of 117.7. - Daily Herald
Today on NFHS Network
Live streams of today’s varsity and junior varsity boys lacrosse games against Grayslake North will be available for viewing online. The JV game starts at 5:30, followed by the varsity at 7 o’clock. Watch the action on Stevenson’s NFHS Network page.
STUDENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Click This Link to See More Announcements
Last Chance to See Faculty Art Exhibit
Wednesday is your last chance to see the faculty art exhibit in the Visiting Artist Gallery. Check out the work of Ms. Connolly, Mr. Fairchild, Mr. Grice, Ms. Hyken, Mr. Myers, Ms. Sabbagh and Ms. Sturlis before it goes away. The final Visiting Artist of the Month display, featuring Chicago painter Nicole Gordon, begins Friday.
Interested in spoken word poetry? Write Club is hosting an open mic event spanning two days, on Tuesday, April 23 and Tuesday, April 30, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Little Theater. This open mic will focus on spoken word, and all students are welcome to watch. Be prepared to write your own spoken word poem. No experience necessary!
Ignite the competition Friday in the eSports One v One League of Legends Tournament from 4-6 p.m. in the ELC. Yasuo v. Teemo. Heimer v. Vayne. Blitz v. Anyone. Free admission, plus prizes awarded. Don’t miss it!
Students Helping Soldiers will meet after school Tuesday in Room 5044.
ILLINOIS EDUCATION HEADLINES
CPS withholding millions from charter schools
Teacher arrested after bringing loaded gun to school
Convicted felon appointed to suburban school board
Police: Student planned to kill ex-girlfriend at school
Accused Illinois School for the Deaf teacher identified
Ex-SIU president under fire again for improper hiring
More students considering trades, other options
Highland Park junior high set for $40M makeover
Northwestern condemns “racial intimidation”
Retiring band director overcame dyslexia, cancer
Struggling freshman hits right note with piano
NATIONAL EDUCATION HEADLINES
Warren unveils $640B student debt forgiveness plan
School district secessions gather speed, report says
Media literacy for students gaining elevated status
Texas district sued over lack of school board diversity
Legacy admissions study offers fuel for both sides
###########################################################
The Daily Digest is compiled and edited by Jim Conrey. To subscribe or unsubscribe, contact him at jco...@d125.org.