Hendricken sweeps awards at URI annual High School Chemistry Contest

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Bishop Hendricken High School continued its streak of winning the University of Rhode Island’s annual High School Chemistry Contest by sweeping all of the awards.
Hendricken’s students won the Division I and Division II team competitions, along with first, scond and third place individual awards in both divisions, according to the university, which has hosted the contest since 1921.
Placing second and third in both divisions of team competition were Barrington High School and East Greenwich High School, respectively.
According to a news release about the event, approximately 350 students from 12 area high schools competed in the 45-question, multiple-choice exam, which had to be completed in an hour.
Students with less than one full year of high school chemistry competed in Division I, while students with more than one year of high school chemistry competed in Division II. Those enrolled in advanced placement classes competed in Division II.
In Division I, Hendricken’s winning team consisted of Derek Byrne, Haoyang Cai, Fred Choi, Giancarlo Gentili, Max Miranda, Brandon Selvidio, Therun Somasundar and Ricky Yao. Somasundar, Miranda and Cai took first, second and third place, respectively, in the Division I individual contest.
In Division II, the winning Hendricken team was Riley Chabot, Andrew Denkewicz, Nathan Meehan, Andrew Sarazen, Dongjun Seung, Congnan Shen, Miles Temel and Sichao Xu. Meehan, Chabot and Denkewicz took first, second and third place, respectively, in the Division II individual competition. Temel also won the Division I individual competition in 2014.
In five of the last six years, Hendricken, which is in Warwick, has won both the Division I team competition and the Division I individual contest.
This also is the second year in a row that it has won the Division II contest.
All of the winning Hendricken teams were taught by chemistry teacher Sister Carol Anne Murray.