Whiz Kids: Seneca Valley Smarties Earn National Academic Games Accolades

These Raiders are thinking champions—and they have the awards to prove it.

Several Seneca Valley students recently earned honors, including two national championship titles, at the National Academic Games competition in Wheeling, W.Va.

Alex Garcia, a sixth grader at was named the Academic Games On-Sets Individual National Champion for his age level. Ryan Stelitano, also a sixth grader at Haine Middle School, was named the Academic Games Equations Individual National Champion

The national third place team for on-sets included five students from Haine Middle School. They are Dmitri Zalnasky, Andrew Funovits, Sarah Donaldson, Alex Garcia and Ryan Stelitano.

Additionally, Lucy Geronime, a seventh grader at took fourth place at nationals in propaganda

In academic games, students try to out-think each other in the areas of mathematics, language arts, and social studies.

Seneca Valley competes against other area schools in several regional competitions with the hopes of qualifying as many students to the Academic Games Nationals as possible.

Teachers Dale Wagner, Ruth Johns, Lynne Ranayhossaini and Jeremiah Friday all served as advisors to the teams.

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