Three Eastside Catholic students, Ben Boyle of Mercer Island, Matt Mahan of Bellevue and Michael Orehek of Mercer Island, have been named National Merit Scholarship finalists.

“These three fine young men and outstanding scholars have been a tremendous asset to our school and examples of EC’s dedication to educating the whole student,” said former Eastside Catholic High School Principal Tom Lord. “In addition to being highly intelligent, Ben is active in playing and coaching baseball and tutoring math; Matt is very actively involved in our speech and debate team, where he is currently serving as overall team captain, and currently serves as Associated Student Body treasurer; Michael was awarded both the Outstanding Attorney and Outstanding Witness awards in the Washington state and District Mock Trial Competitions last year.  He was also awarded ECHS’ Scholar Athlete Award in both varsity swimming and JV tennis as a junior.”

The three students were informed about being finalists by Lord in his office.

“I was hoping it wasn’t like a game show where they call in all three to tell us which ONE of us is a finalist,” laughed Boyle. For the future, he plans to go to college and “experience that freedom of living in a dorm while learning more.”

The three were selected from the pool of 16,000 semi-finalists. Semi-finalist status is determined solely based on scoring in the top 1 percent on the PSAT. To become a finalist, students were required to submit letters of recommendation, an essay, verification of academic qualification, proof of a rigorous course load and list of extra-curricular activities.

Also at Eastside Catholic, four students were named National Merit Commended Scholars: Jake Gober, Kyle Larson, Miles Linde, and Nicholas Mahan. They scored in the top 5 percent nationally on the PSAT.