KINGSTON, R.I. – May 26, 2015 – Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick continued its string of successes at the University of Rhode Island’s annual High School Chemistry Contest last week by sweeping all of the awards. Hendricken students won the Division I and Division II team competitions, as well as the first, second and third place individual awards in both divisions.

Barrington High School and East Greenwich High School placed second and third, respectively, in both divisions of the team competition.

About 350 students from 12 area high schools competed in the 45-question, multiple-choice exam, which must be completed in an hour. Students with less than one full year of high school chemistry compete in Division I, while students with more than one year of high school chemistry compete in Division II. Those enrolled in advanced placement classes compete in Division II.

URI has hosted the contest since 1921.

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 won the Division I individual competition in 2014.

Hendricken has had tremendous success at the Chemistry Contest in recent years. In five of the last six years it has won both the Division I team competition and the Division I individual contest. This is the second year in a row it has won the Division II contest. All of the winning Hendricken teams were taught by chemistry teacher Sister Carol Anne Murray.

Pictured above:

Therun Somasundar, a student at Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, holds the first place trophy from the Division I individual competition during the University of Rhode Island’s High School Chemistry Contest.

Students representing Bishop Hendricken took first place in the Division I team competition during the University of Rhode Island’s annual High School Chemistry Contest. Team members are (left to right, front) Therun Somasundar, Ricky Yao, Haoyang Cai and Brandon Selvidio; (left to right, rear) Max Miranda, Giancarlo Gentili, Derek Byrne and Fred Choi.

Nathan Meehan, a student at Bishop Hendricken High School, won first place in the Division II individual competition during the University of Rhode Island’s annual High School Chemistry Contest last week.

Bishop Hendricken students who won first place in the Division II team competition are (left to right, front) Nathan Meehan, Sichao Xu, Andrew Sarazen, and Andrew Denkewicz; (left to right, rear) Riley Chabot, Miles Temel, Dongjun Seung and Congnan Shen.

Photos by Michael Salerno