Students in the News

Highland Middle School sixth-grader Bria Riedy, a Level 5 gymnast at Five-Star Gymnastics in Brunswick, competed at the 2022 Ohio USA Gymnastics State Meet on April 2 at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus and emerged as the state champion on Bars.

Riedy competed against 16 others across the state to capture the title, with a final score of 9.725. In addition, she finished in second place in the All-Around, as she made the podium in every event.

This is Riedy’s third state title, as she also captured the top spot in vault during the 2021 USAG meet and on bars in 2019.

She is the daughter of Adam and Margo Riedy of Hinckley Township.

Speaking of middle school gymnasts, Eighth-grader Kaitlyn Trzaska captured the state title on vault with a score of 9.500 at the 2022 Ohio USA Gymnastics Meet in Columbus on March 27. Kaitlyn, who is a Level 7 gymnast at Five Star Gymnastics in Brunswick, also placed second on Bars with a score of 9.475 and third in the All-Around. In addition to this year’s achievements, she has earned a total of nine state titles in her gymnastics career thus far and recently qualified to compete at regionals to be held at the end of April in Kentucky.

She is the daughter of John and Kim Trzaska of Hinckley Township.

Five Highland High School student-athletes signed their letters of intent to attend and play sports for their chosen college. Each received a full or partial academic and/or athletic scholarship. Derek Evans will attend Lake Erie College where he will play baseball and study sports management; Alessandra Goyette will join the women’s golf team at Walsh University and plans to major in biology/pre-medicine; Emily Keeling will attend Ashland University where she will join the stunt and cheerleading squad and study elementary education; Emma Hetkey will join the softball team at the College of Wooster where she is currently undecided on her major course of study; and Keirsten Trayte will join the softball team at Cottey College in Missouri where she will major in health and biomedical science.

Members of Highland High School’s STEM Club, including David Austin, Ben Houzenga, Evan Davis and Dylan Jones, won the NASA TechRise Challenge.

Several Highland High School students had their artwork on display in 35 businesses in and around Medina’s Historic Square as part of the 2022 Medina County Student Art Show in March. Those students include: Izabella Zeleznak, Lilly Barnett, Carter Oviatt, Page Easterly, Andrew Bryan, Nadezhda Ditchey, James Lew, Teagan McCafferty, Gabe Perry, Hailey Pennington, Paige Kramer, Amulya Katta, Liam Wright, Ian Schuler, Wren Marquis, Harding Wright, Allison Ricco, Lizzy Magoolaghan, Avery Addington, Delaney Miller, Madelyn Horton, Lucy Freund, Kendell Sprutte, Sarah Thomas, Valerie Vinyard, Genevieve Kulczycki, Victoria Semon, Tyler Jordan, Madelyn Muha, Shirley Chapman, Madison Slivka, Alexander Schidowka, Ella Tople, Jay Ellis, Leena Shadid, Ben Colangelo, Victoria White and Camden Finding.

The Highland Speech and Debate Team placed 19 out of 79 teams at this year’s state tournament.

Lauren Riley emerged as a Finalist in Congressional Debate and finished 13th in the state out of 184 competitors. Sadie Mendenhall made it to the semi-final round in Congressional Debate, which is the Top 12 in the state. The following students also made it to the quarter-final round, which is the Top 24 competitiors in the state: Vedant Natarajan, Congressional Debate; Victoria Farrell, Dramatic Interpretation; Maranda Vitko, Dramatic Interpretation; Kourtney Carr, Informative Speaking; and Dylan Jones, International Extemporaneous Speaking.