Three students from Carrboro High School, 12 of their peers from Chapel Hill High and 16 from East Chapel Hill High have been named semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship, the district announced Thursday.

Approximately 9,700 National Merit Scholarships are awarded nationwide to those who perform the best on the SAT.

The following students from Carrboro High School have been named semifinalists in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Competition: Erin Harrington, Jonathan Schuyler Kylstra and Julianne Ragland.

The following students from Chapel Hill High School have been named semifinalists: Sarah Anderson, Mary Ann Anstine, Julie Crimmins, Robert Gollmar, Mariana Hernandez, Andrew Hertzberg, Erin Humphries, Sara Outing, Ranjit Poonnen, Ellen Porter, Maria Van Aalst and Megan Westman.

The following students from East Chapel Hill High School have been named semifinalists: Alexandru Bacanu, Tyler Bench, Isabel Blue, Hannah Flake, Jennifer Huang, Bernard Jiang, Wujun Ke, Arthur Kim, Rebecca Lange, Rachel Liao, Charmaine Mutucumarana, Preetha Nandi, Thomas Price, Millie Rosen, Carter Ruff and Alan Toda-Ambaras.

Those who score in the top five percent of the SAT are recognized as Commended Students by the College Board, administrator of the SAT.

Commended Students from Carrboro High School are: Aidan Burns-Fulkerson, Eric Cotton, Emily Hamilton, Mackenzie Price and Mariel Steen.

Commended Students from Chapel Hill High School are: Juliana Brecher, Patrick Dear, Sarah Dehart, Eric Lang, Michael Lo, Kacie Neville, Barbara Parks, Nicholas Powers-Maher, Molly Spencer, Zoe Symon and Matthew Underwood.

Commended Students from East Chapel Hill High School are: Ariel Westmoreland, Benjamin Brown, Mason Cordell, Jason Elangbam, Mark Filpus, Meryl Goldstein, Elsbeth Grant, Mattis Hennings, Jun Hong, Alexander Howerton, Emily Jessup, Jonathan Lang, Garrett Langley Henson, William Laundon, Austyn Laures, Camellia Lee, Shuo Liu, Joshua Loyal, Hayley Madden, Alexander Mariakakis, Katherine McIlwain, Sehwa Oh, Benjamin Palmer, Yang Pan, Kiersten Paul, Hannah Peel, Ian Seim, Christopher Serody, Joseph Shea, Yvonne Socolar, Elise Stave, Emily Trabert, Robert Vaughn, Alexa Waters, Trent Wei, Sebastian Werner, Katherine Williams, Zachary Witter and Andranik Yeliazyan.