Three Illinois players have tied for 11th place in the K-8 section at the National Junior High Championships completed April 17 in Indianapolis.

Ricky Wang (13th), Vincent Do (15th) and Shreya Mangalam (16th) all posted 5.5/7 and received trophies based on their tiebreak, but essentially tied for 11th out of 271 full-fledged entrants.

A half-point back, tying for 21st place with a 5.0 score, receiving 25th place trophies on tiebreaks were Kevin Ho, Siddharth Acharya, Jason Daniels, Peter Zheng and Patrick Rao.

Advaith Prabu -- who used to hail from central Illinois but now calls Frisco, TX home -- was also in that score group.

For those with pre-event ratings 1500-1599, Adrian Calinescu of Wilmette lead all players with 4.5/7.

Wheaton's William Cahill had the third highest score of players rated 1200-1299 with 3.5/7.

Charles Kang of Rockford had the highest score of players rated Under 1000 tying with a Washington state player, receiving second place honors on tiebreaks. In third place was Anish Deshpande of Bloomington.

Rockford's Richard Yang posted the highest score for previously unrated players in the K-8 Championship section.

Thurgood Marshall of Rockford tied for 8th place as a team, taking 10th place on tiebreaks with their 15.5 score. Contributing to that total were Vincent's 5.5, 3.5 from Charles, 3.5 from Jeremiah Davis and 3.0 from Sreyansh Mamidi.

With only three of the allowed four participants, Buffalo Grove's Aptakisic Junior High posted 14.0, tying for 12th, receiving 13th on tiebreaks with Ricky's 5.5 and 4.5 from Adam Wallach and 4.0 from David Wallach.

A half-point back was Wilmette Junior High, taking 14th place honors thanks to Adrian's 4.5 and 3.0's from Justin Weinzwieg, Richard Porwancher, Alex Yasumoto and Aryoman Patel (three of the 3.0's counted toward the team total).

Chiddix Junior High of Normal and Bloomington Junior High of Normal also competed valiantly in the section.

In the K-9 Championship section Whitney Young of Chicago took home 4th place honors with 16.5 thanks to 5.0/7 from Matthew Stevens and Nikhil Kalghatgi, 4.5 from Akhil Kalghatgi and 2.0 from Ricky Roman. 

Matthew and Nikhil tied for 10th place, receiving 14th and 15th place hardware respectively on tiebreaks.

In K-9 Under 1250 competition, Clayton Davis of Normal Community West took clear second place with 6.5/7.

Rhodes Magnet School of Evanston's Alex Fogel (18th) and Alan Wang (T-20th) tied for 16th place with 5.0's, taking home individual hardware.

Avery Coonley School's Ojas Vasisht was in the same 5.0 score group, taking home a trophy similar to Alan's.

Clayton's NCW team tied for 13th place, taking home the 14th place trophy.

Rhodes posted 16.5, tying for 9th place. The score was comprised of the 5.0's from Alexander and Alan, along with 3.5 from Nathan Menikov and 3.0 from Jonah Fogel.

Avery Coonley took 11th place honors with 15.5. Contributing to their score were Ojas, Alex and Christian Turk (both with 4.0) and Ben Broach (2.5).

In the K-9 Unrated section, Earle STEM of Chicago took fifth place honors assisted by 5.0 from Semaj Lowe, and 4.0 from Devian Dukes. Shawn Palmer and Monique Williams contributed 2.0's to round out the team score.

Semaj tied for fourth place with two others, receiving the highest tiebreak for the fourth place trophy.

Bloomington's Evans Junior High earned 4th place honors in the K-8 Under 1000 section. Nikhil Kuricheti (5.5), Jay Ganesan (4.0), Owen Parker (4.0) and Tyler Tanton (3.5) contributed to the 17.0 team score.

Nikhil tied for 8th place, receiving 11th on tiebreaks.

In the K-8 Under 750 section, Daniel Bolanos of Gallistel (Chicago) took clear third place with 6.5/7. Erik Villasenor of Washington Elementary (Chicago) took fourth place with the top tiebreak at 6.0.

Shreyas Kale of Chiddix of Normal also posted 6.0, taking 7th place on tiebreaks.

Tyrone Dellar of Earle STEM tied for 14th at 5.5, taking 19th place hardware on tiebreaks.

Illinois managed two team trophies in the section: Gallistel with 18.5 earned 8th place honors while Keller (Chicago) garnered 13th place with a 16.5 tally.

	K-8 Championship	K-9 Championship	K-9 Unrated
5.5	Ricky Wang (T-11, 13th Place Trophy)
	Vincent Do (T-11, 15th)
	Shreya Mangalam (T-11, 16th)
5.0	Kevin Ho (T-21, 25th Place Trophy)	Matthew Stevens (T-10, 14th Place)	Semaj Lowe (T-4th, 4th Place)
	Siddharth Acharya (T-21, 25th)	Nikhil Kalghatgi (T-10, 15th)
	Jason Daniels (T-21, 25th)
	Peter Zheng (T-21, 25th)
	Patrick Rao (T-21, 25th)
Top IL	Thurgood Marshall	Whitney Young High School	Earle STEM Academy
Team	Rockford	Chicago	Chicago
Points	15.5	16.5	13.0
Place	Tied for 8th	4th	5th
Trophy	10th Place	4th Place	5th Place
	K-8 Under 1000	K-8 Under 750	K-9 Under 1250
6.5		Daniel Bolanos, 3rd Place	Clayton Davis, 2nd Place
6.0		Erik Villasenor (T-4, 4th Place)
		Shreyas Kale (T-4, 7th Place)
5.5	Nikhil Kuricheti (T-8, 11th Place)	Tyrone Dellar (T-14, 19th Place)
5.0			Alex Fogel (T-16, 18th)
			Alan Wang (T-16, 20th)
Top IL	Evans Junior High School	Gallistel Language	Normal Community West
Team	Bloomington	Chicago	Normal
Points	17.0	18.5	16.5
Place	4th	8th	9th
Trophy	4th Place	8th Place	9th Place

 

 

 

Normal Community West Junior High, K-9 U1250 9th Place, coached by Garrett Scott (left)