Student Standouts: Ada ’23, Kanumury ’23, Li ’23, Macam ’23, Iken ’24, Woodrow ’24, Ferguson ’27, Moore ’23, Patton ’23, Scheele ’23, Concannon ’24, Mikulec ’24, Schukar ’24, Birkel ’25, Applegate ’27, Ray ’23, Bucci ’28, Woodward ’28, Smith ’31, HOSA Club, STARS Participants, Baseball, Football, Boys Lacrosse, Girls Lacrosse, Girls Soccer, Track & Field
Faculty & Staff Features: Douglas and Heinemann
Congratulations to this week’s standouts below. Way to go #RamNation! And as always, if you have a story to share, please email weeklynews@micds.org.
Senior Selected as One of Four Student Leaders from St. Louis
Nikitha Ada ’23 is a 2022 St. Louis Bank of America Student Leader who interns at the United Way in St. Louis. She’s been involved with the Missouri Red Cross and the St. Louis Area Foodbank. She is one of four student leaders from St. Louis and one of 300 selected nationwide.
Senior Shares about Bio-Based Plastic with the World
As shared previously in Student Standouts in May, Kareena Kanumury ’23 is continuing to strive toward helping the world solve its plastics crisis. Over the summer, she was able to share more about her efforts in creating sustainability with West Newsmagazine, Town & Style, and Fox 2 News Live. Watch her Fox 2 segment below!
Kareena reported that Sport Court also made a donation on behalf of her name to a charity of her choice. She selected One Million Women as the beneficiary, a charity that supports women empowerment and sustainability. Keep it up, Kareena!
Senior Earns Highest Score Statewide in American Computer Science League Contest
This year, 14 students competed in the American Computer Science League. In the American Computer Science League, students learned optional and challenging computer science topics outside of class such as computer number systems, boolean algebra, data structures, regular expressions, graph theory, and assembly programming.
Four exams were given throughout the year on these computer science topics which include conceptual questions as well as a programming portion. Two students qualified for the final exam which took place on Saturday, May 28—Sam Baumohl ’22 and Alan Li ’23.
Li earned the highest score on the exam in the state of Missouri while Baumohl scored the second highest in Missouri.
This was the first year that MICDS offered the American Computer Science League contest. The contest is an international contest that just completed its 44th year. Students learn important building blocks for higher-level collegiate computer science courses. Moreover, students were exposed to HackerRank where they took the exams in the contest. HankerRank is software commonly used by employers to test candidates in their programming knowledge.
Overall, students received valuable experiences that will benefit their later experiences in computer science.
MICDS Students Perform with Muny Kids
Several MICDS student performed and sang in the ensemble with the Muny over the summer. Bravo to Ellemieke Ferguson ’27, Thomas Woodrow ’24, Ben Iken ’24, and Noah Macam ’25 who were part of the Mary Poppins production and more!
Senior Running Back/Receiver Featured for Football Prowess & Entrepreneurship
STL High School Sports featured Winston Moore ’23 in an article about his versatility and leadership on the MICDS Football team. Moore is a senior running back and receiver for the Rams. He has 20 offers to pick from to play football in college ranging from small to large, near and far, and military service academics to the Ivy League. He’s known to make excellent plays during his football career at MICDS.
In addition to football, the article highlights Moore’s business, Winston’s Naturals, which offers natural body oils and hair and beard elixirs that soften and moisturize. Although the progress of his business was stalled a little due to the pandemic, he’s hoping to get it up and running soon. Go Winston!
Senior Competes in U.S. Figure Skating's National Showcase
Senior Named Player of the Year in Girls Soccer
Congratulations to Parker Scheele ’23 for being named Missouri Class 2 All-Region Player of the Year by the Missouri Soccer Coaches Association! Go Rams!
Student Participated in High School Hispanic Leadership Institute
Elliot Concannon ’24 is one of 21 students who was chosen to participate in the High School Hispanic Leadership Institute, a leadership course that prepares students for leadership roles in high school and college. Students from all over the metro area and schools were chosen to attend the program, all in high school during the 2021-2022 school year and having Hispanic/Latin backgrounds. They spent a week traveling around the St. Louis Metro area, visiting sponsor locations such as Lindenwood University, SLU, SIUE, the HCC, and Midland State Bank.
Upon being asked about his experience, Elliot shared, “The institute consisted of five days of different speakers at different locations. Almost every location was at a college. We went to SIUE, SLU, etc. Each day we learned different topics, from health and wellness to how to set goals to achieve them in the future. All of this was important to learning how to become a leader. All of the speakers were also Hispanic and leaders themselves, so it was great to learn from them and their experiences. I also was able to make several connections throughout the weeklong course with other Hispanic kids in the community. Overall, it was a great experience that helped me be ready for the challenges that come with leadership.”
Mikulec '24 Earns USTA's Junior Sportsmanship Award
Mikaela Mikulec ’24 was selected by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) in Missouri Valley as the Junior Sportsmanship Winner! The USTA Junior Sportsmanship award recognizes players who go above and beyond to display good sportsmanship. Players are to “Handle victory and defeat with grace and dignity and treat opponents with fairness and courtesy.”
Read the article above to see why Mikaela was selected and how her coach, Head Tennis Coach Brad Heinemann, describes her. Way to go, Mikaela!
Ram Develops Leadership Skills at Camp & Becomes Certified PADI Rescue Diver
Junior Davis Schukar ’24 was selected by MICDS faculty to represent his class at the Hugh O’Brian Youth (HOBY) Leadership Camp in June. As part of the camp, he spent three days in the dorms at Webster University to grow his leadership skills.
The mission of HOBY Leadership Camp is: “To inspire and develop our global community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service, and innovation.”
Additionally, during the summer, Davis passed the Emergency First Responder class and became a certified PADI Rescue Diver. He celebrated his 105th dive in July by doing a wreck dive in Fiji.
Soccer Star Success
A shoutout to Caroline Birkel ’25 who served as the goalkeeper for the Elite Clubs National League (ECLN) U16 National Championship soccer game! Her team won, 1-0!
Stellar Races by Rams at the Festival of Miles
MICDS had an excellent turnout at the Festival of Miles on June 2, 2022. Here are the highlights from the festival:
- Frances Applegate ’27 finished the Junior High Invitational Girls Mile in 6:05.99!
- Julia Ray ’23 finished in second place in the Spewak Training High School Girls Elite Development Mile in 5:02.43
- Charger the Ram (also known as Ellie Gira ’22) finished in 12th place with a time of 1:16.14 in the 400 Meter Mascot Race
- Alumnus Jordan Mann ’11 finished in 10th place in the St. Louis Track Club Men’s Mile
Way to go, running Rams!
Seventh Graders Earns Silver Medal at Junior Olympics
Gio Bucci ’28, with his team, won the silver medal in the 14 and Under Boys at the US Waterpolo Junior Olympics, the highest club competition in the country. This result is historical for St. Louis water polo. Well done, Gio!
Seventh Grader Attended Interlochen Arts Camp Over Summer
Asher Woodward ’28 attended the world-renowned Interlochen Arts Camp in northern Michigan this summer, having been awarded a merit scholarship for the intermediate animation program. Founded in 1928, Interlochen Arts Camp is the nation’s premier multidisciplinary summer arts program for emerging artists, grades three through 12. Guided by internationally-renowned artists, campers ages eight to 18 study music, theatre, dance, visual arts, creative writing, and film in a glorious, natural setting with like-minded peers. Among distinguished Camp alumni are Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Rufus Wainwright, Jessye Norman, Loren Maazel, actor Anthony Rapp, cartoonist Cathy Guisewite, and many more.
Asher said, “There were a lot of different people at Interlochen since there are multiple art majors there. I majored in Animation within the Film and New Media program. We got to do a lot of cool projects. We did flipbooks, stop motion, multiple digital animations, and for our final project, we got to make a short film. I’m really happy I got to go; it’s a huge honor!”
Smith '31 Competes in AAU National Qualifiers
Evan Smith ’31 came in second place in both javelin and shot put in the 2022 AAU National Qualifiers on June 25. He is officially number two in the javelin and shot put in the region which includes Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisiana!
HOSA Takes 4th at Internationals
Seven members of the MICDS Future Health Professionals Club, formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), attended HOSA’s International Leadership Conference in Nashville in June. MICDS’ Parliamentary Procedure team advanced to Internationals after coming in second at State. At Internationals, the team first scored well on a written test for round one. Based on the results, they were one of just 16 teams that advanced to round two. In round two, the team ran a HOSA meeting for the HOSA judges using parliamentary procedure. Ultimately, the team placed in 4th in the competition.
In addition to the competition, the students networked with other HOSA students from around the world (there were over 8000 of them!), toured booths from colleges and vendors about medical programs, went to talks about medical topics, and had fun swimming, playing mini golf, and dancing! Way to go, Rams!
Congratulations to the following team members:
- Sanjana Gandhi ’25
- Ric Jain ’25
- Abhinav Katyal ’25
- Diane Li ’24
- Yash Malhotra ’25
- Anika Mulkanoor ’25
- Arjun Puri ’25
Eight Rams Graduate STARS Program
MICDS sent eight Upper Schoolers to participate in the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ Students and Teachers As Research Scientists program this summer. For six weeks, they worked in the labs of research mentors in the fields of biology, chemistry, computer science, earth science, engineering, environmental science, mathematics, medicine, physics, or psychology. They also learned from professional researchers through a speaker series that was part of the program. The program culminated with each student presenting their research findings and then celebrating the completion of the program with a confirmation ceremony. Congratulations to our 2022 STARS graduates:
- Penny Chen ’23
- Layla Daud ’23
- CJ Goot ’23
- Maggie Johnson ’23
- Kareena Kanumury ’23
- Evelyn Lui ’23
- Nithya Reddy ’23
- Emma Shao ’23
- Sanchi Vishwakarma ’23
Baseball Players Earn Postseason Recognition
The following Rams have earned postseason recognition from the 2022 baseball season:
All-District Honorees:
Reagan Andrew ’22
Jack Niedringhaus ’22
All-Conference Honorees:
First Team:
Reagan Andrew ’22
Jack Niedringhaus ’22
Eric Podgorny ’23
Second Team:
Jack Rollo ’23
Gordon Walker ’22
Henry Cordes ’24
Jack Hayes ’22
Honorable Mention:
Brian Gould ’25
Michael Swanson ’22
Football Team Prepares to "Finish"
The MICDS Football team has been very close to winning the state championship the past two seasons with Head Coach Dr. Fred Bouchard at the helm. Watch this KMOV4 interview with Coach Bouchard and players Steve Hall ’23, and Nate Schuckman ’23 as the team prepares to “finish” the job of bringing the state championship home.
Also, check out this thorough “Pigskin Preview” by Gateway Sports Venue of the 2022 Rams Football team!
Lastly, read some details of the upcoming and most recent seasons from Scoops with Danny Mac. Let’s go Rams!
Boys Lacrosse Takes Home Eighth Consecutive State Championship
The MICDS Boys Lacrosse team defeated De Smet on the last day of school to take home the eighth consecutive MSLA championship! They started off their first goal of the match by executing a hidden ball trick.
Read the recap of the game as shared by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After rallying from a first-quarter deficit, the Rams finished off the game 7-4 in the Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association’s State Cup.
Congratulations to Henry Oliver ’25 for making the 2022 All-Metro Boys Lacrosse Second Team and to George Herron ’23 for earning a spot on the 2022 All-Metro Boys Lacrosse Third Team! Additionally, several now-graduated seniors from the 2022 season earned a spot on First Team.
Girls Lacrosse Brings State Championship Victory
Right after school finished, the Girls Lacrosse team won the state title for the seventh time in the past nine seasons. Check out this article by STL Today about their championship victory against Eureka, 7-2, as well as this article about their state semifinal win over John Burroughs.
Rams Earn First State Championship for Girls Soccer
At the end of last school year, the Girls Soccer team was heading into the final matches of the season which led to the first-ever state championship! Read the semifinal game recap from STL Today, watch the game-winning goal of the Class 2 Championship, read about the state championship game and the overtime header in STL Today which beat Orchard Farm as well as the championship recap in West Newsmagazine, and even watch the team singing “We are the Champions” with their bus driver after the victory. You can also listen to Scoops with Danny Mac as he interviews MICDS Girls Soccer Coach Jack Fischer about the championship win (18:14).
Track & Field State Successes and New Record Holders
The Track & Field team set a number of records during the exciting spring 2022 season and had the following successes at the State Championships:
- Maya Anderson ’23 was the State Champion in the Triple Jump and in the 300 Meter Hurdles. She also finished in 2nd place in the 100 Meter Hurdles.
- Winston Moore ’23 finished in 5th Place in the 100 Meter Dash.
- Julia Ray ’23 finished in 6th place in the 3200 Meter Run and in 7th place in the 1600 Meter Run.
- Tony Nunn ’22, Winston Moore ’23, Tristan Williams ’24, and Novo Onovwerosuoke ’22 were State Champions in the 4×200 Meter Relay and in the in the 4×400 Meter Relay.
Now graduated Class of 2022 seniors had the following results:
- Brandon Mitchell-Day ’22 finished in 3rd Place in the Triple Jump.
- Zoe Carter-Konate ’22 finished in 8th Place in the Shot Put.
- Novo finished in 3rd Place in the 400 Meter Dash and he finished in 4th place in the 200 Meter Dash.
The following new school records were set:
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Maya broke the school record in the 100 Meter Hurdles with a time of 13.59 which beats her own record from the 2021 State Championships.
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Maya broke the school record in the 300 Meter Hurdles with a time of 42.74 which beats the previous record which was a time of 44.12 run by Sommer Lawal ’97 in 1997 which was the 1997 State Championship Winning Time.
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Maya broke the school record in the Triple Jump with a jump of 12.08m (39′ 07.75″) which beats the previous record which was a jump of 38′ 11.75″ (11.88m) jumped by Zionn Pearson ’18 in 2018.
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Zoe broke the school record in the Shot Put with a throw of 12.66m (41′ 6.50″) which beats the previous record which was a throw of 41″ 0.25′ (12.5m) thrown by Brittany Fields ’07 in 2007.
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Novo broke the school record in the 400 Meter Dash with a time of 49.66 which beats the previous record which was a time of 49.85 run by Amos Bartelsmeyer ’13 in 2012.
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Tony, Winston, Tristan, and Novo broke the school record in the 4×200 Meter Relay with a 1:27.06 which beats the previous record set by Novo, Winston, Harrison Brown ’22, and Tony last year at the Class 3 Sectional 2 Meet.
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Tony, Winston, Tristan, and Novo broke the school record in the 4×400 with a time of 3:22.51. The previous record was set by David Hinch ’85, David Son ’87, Doug Teasdale ’85, and Mike Mayweather ’87 in 1985.
Congratulations to Maya Anderson ’23 for making the First Team in the St. Louis American 2022 All-Area Track and Field Team for her stellar performances in the 300-meter low hurdles and the triple jump! She made Second Team for her 100-meter-high hurdles event. She set new school records in the 100-meter high hurdles, the 300-meter low hurdles, and the triple jump.
The MICDS Boys Track & Field team also made First Team in the 4×200-meter relay and the 4×400-meter relay.
Way to go, Rams!
Faculty Feature: Denise Douglas' Artwork Exhibited at Duane Reed Gallery
The artwork of our very own Upper School Fine Arts Teacher & Gallery Director Denise Douglas was included in a group art exhibition over the summer at one of the city’s top galleries. Both of the pieces she exhibited were sold. She said, “It was a huge achievement as an artist to be asked to include my work by such a prominent gallery (Duane Reed Gallery).”
Watch the video below of the Small Works Invitational Exhibition at the St. Louis Duane Reed Gallery and read the article about the exhibition by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Below are the masterpieces by Ms. Douglas:
Faculty Feature: Brad Heinemann Highlighted as New Head Tennis Coach
In their “Sports briefs,” West Newsmagazine highlighted the new Head Coach of MICDS Varsity Girls Tennis, Brad Heinemann. The article calls Coach Heinemann a “familiar face” since he previously directed the MICDS tennis program from 2004 to 2013. Under his coaching leadership, his teams went to the Final Four 25 times, earned seven team state titles, and many individual and doubles state championships. Most recently, Coach Heinemann served as the Assistant Varsity Tennis Coach for both Boys and Girls teams. He is also a Fine Arts Teacher in MICDS Upper School.