MONITEAU EXCELS — Moniteau High School students competed Nov. 21 in the Academic Sports League Decathlon Competition at Mercyhurst College and earned 33 medals. Pictured, back row from left, are John Klecha, Chris Cokain, Nathan Moore, Luke Osborne, Phil Kristufek, Joe Holfelder, Tony Miller, Jake Boy, Tim Shearer, Luke Elliott, Roman Weingartner, Evan Miller, Amanda Mock and Angela Schandelmeier; center, Sarah Miller, left, and Clarissa Kimmey; front Jeremy Borkowski, Jared Say, Luke Homa, Nick Brown and Walker Martz.

Students from

Moniteau High School competed Nov. 21 in the Academic Sports League Decathlon Competition at Mercyhurst College and earned 33 medals.Moniteau is the defending Pennsylvania Small-School Champions and Online National Championship Runner-Up. About 360 students from 26 high schools competed in the national scholastic competition for high school students and competed in six events: essay, art, interview, language and literature, music and speech.At this first competition, Moniteau High School claimed victory over the multi-time-state championship team from Collegiate Academy which had been undefeated in ASL events for eight years.The team's highest scorer was sophomore

Clarissa Kimmey, who was fourth overall at the competition.Moniteau's scholastic division members claimed the top three positions with

Tony Miller winning gold,

Sarah Miller winning silver and

Phil Kristufek winning bronze.In the varsity division,

Nathan Moore won bronze overall and

Roman Weingartner won fourth place.

Amanda Mock, Luke Elliott, Chris Cokain, Jake Boy and

Joe Holfelder all added to the total 33 medals earned.———

Taylor Boice of Mars was accepted at Gannon University in Erie. She will begin classes in fall 2010 as a physical assistant major.A student at Mars High School, she has been on the high honor roll. She also is active in REACH, interact club and class council.Boice is the daughter of Jeff and Cindy Boice.———The Grove City College Department of Education, education honorary Kappa Delta Pi and the Hamilton Curriculum Library honored 97 fourth through eighth grade creative writers at the Grove City College Awarding Awesome Authors awards Ceremony.Now in its 12th year, the biannual contest drew more than 500 entries from 14 school districts.Winners in Butler County are:• Butler School District:

Chloe Emanuele, Gabriele Palombo, Riley Siebert, Sarah Thompson Kiera Vensel, Jennifer Miller, Alexis Schmeider, Nancy Wilson, Hannah Eberle, Roni Kurnava, Jamie Mager, David Schummer, Alex Wheeler, Rachael Wigton• Moniteau School District:

Maura Kimmel, Deven Zang• Slippery Rock School District:

Samantha Gillen, Ava Marini, Quinn Burkhart, Marissa Madison, Victoria Ravert, Hope Schnell, Amanda Ball, Derek Gieraltowski, Lena Skeele, Sarah Kadlubek, Kennedy Kreutz.