A team of students from Freeport High School will head to a state competition after taking first place in an ecology event.

David Moody,

Tyler Long and

Zach Will made up "Freeport Green" at the Armstrong County Environthon. They faced eight other county teams.They will compete May 26 at Montour Preserve in Danville.———Westminster College inducted 63 students into Pi Sigma Pi scholastic honor fraternity April 24, including the following local students:

Sarah Burkot of Cranberry Township is a senior elementary education major. A graduate of Seneca Valley High School, she is a daughter of Joseph and Mary Burkot. Burkot.

Matthew Facciani of Cranberry Township is a junior psychology major. A graduate of Seneca Valley High School, he is a son of Patrick and Joanne Facciani.

Cassandra Treshok of Sarver is a junior psychology-human resources major. A graduate of Freeport High School, she is a daughter of Anthony and Karen Treshok.———

Ryan Loverick of Butler was selected to be station manager for WCUB-TV at Clarion University for the 2010-11 school year. He also was elected president of the National Broadcasting Society and vice president of the Society of Collegiate Journalists.A senior majoring in mass media communications and broadcasting, he is the son of Greg and Sheri Loverick of Butler.———

Moniteau High School's Academic Decathlon finished second in the Small School Online National Championship, in which schools with enrollment of 650 or less from across the country compete with one another. Moniteau claimed four of the nine overall scholarship positions.Sophomore

Clarissa Kimmey earned third overall in the honors division. She earned a perfect score on the Super Quiz portion. She claimed five individual medals and will earn additional scholarship for being the top-scoring student on Moniteau's team.Senior

Tony Miller claimed second overall in the nation and was Pennsylvania's highest scoring scholastic. He added more scholarship funds to his full ride to Gannon University and claimed five medals.Senior

Phil Kristufek finished third overall in the scholastic division with five individual medals. He will attend Penn State Behrend in the fall, and his scholarships will be announced May 19 at the Celebration Luncheon at Edinboro University.Freshman

Roman Weingartner collected five individual medals and placed third in the varsity division.Junior

Sarah Miller, senior

Nathan Moore and sophomore

Tim Shearer all earned national medals and scores that counted toward the overall competition results.

Angela Shandelmeier and

Joe Holfelder also competed.

Jeremy Borkowski, the district's Gifted coordinator, and

Kelli Kimmey coach the team.———Moniteau High School student

Patrick O'Malley was awarded a scholarship from the New Castle School of Trades, where he will study refrigeration and air conditioning technology.———

Penn State Erie, the Behrend College, held its 19th annual Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Accomplishment Conference in April.A total of 216 students from 10 colleges and universities in Western Pennsylvania presented their research findings. The following local students presented their projects.Group research

Matthew Cantrell of Valencia, a senior computer engineering major

Nicole Gall of West Sunbury, a senior physics major

Ashley Nocera of Butler, a senior psychology major

Trevor Sepich of Saxonburg, a senior plastics engineering technology majorIndividual research

Samantha Kristufek of Butler, a junior chemistry major

Joseph Pazak of Cranberry Township, a senior management major.