The speech teams from Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central saved the best for last.

The Hornets won the state title behind first place finishes by Darrell Mondaine in the Original Comedy event and Cameron Chamberlain and Cate Cianci in the Dramatic Duet Acting event. Additional highlights for the team included Darrell Mondaine and Grace Cvengros taking second in the Humorous Duet Acting event, and Matthew Leonardson earning fourth place finishes in the Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking events.

The Red Devils finished in sixth overall, but took home a pair of individual state championships - Jack Huber and Nico Kiperman in the Humorous Duet Acting event and Ajay Gupta in the Extemporaneous Speaking event. Additional highlights included the team's third place finish in the Performance in the Round event, Jack Huber's fifth place finish in the Dramatic Interpretation event and Tess McArdle's sixth place finish in the Humorous Interpretation event.

We congratulate both teams and coaches Danny Yuska from South and Paul Woods and Chris Wilbur from Central on their incredible success this year.

We are excited to announce that 23 seniors from District 86 are among the 15,000 individuals from across the country who have been named finalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. In order to qualify as a finalist, students must continue to meet specific requirements and criteria, including having a "record of consistently very high academic performance in all of grades nine through 12 and in any college course work taken."

Below are the names of the students who earned this honor. Each of them will receive a Certificate of Merit and have the chance to win a Merit Scholarship award this spring/summer.

You can learn more about the National Merit Scholarship Program by visiting https://bit.ly/2Zup73M. We congratulate our students on this incredible accomplishment.

Hinsdale Central's Dan Jones has been named a finalist for National Athletic Director of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.

We congratulate Dan on this well-deserved honor, and thank him for all that he does on behalf of the school, district and community.

Mitchell Hanson, Elijah John and Eva Maria Louis from Hinsdale South earned a perfect composite score of 36 on the ACT. The composite score is the average of the scores that are earned on the four tests (English, math, reading and science) that make up the ACT. That average is then rounded to the nearest whole number.

We congratulate Mitchell, Elijah and Eva Maria on this amazing achievement.

The Hinsdale Central Scholastic Bowl team dominated the West Suburban Conference again this season. In a repeat of its impressive performance from last year, the team went undefeated (12-0) and won the regular season and postseason conference titles.

We congratulate the members of team (Jiming Chen, Jeffrey Liu, John Hines-Shah, Alex Burt, Sandro Hillman, Mazen Morrar, Alex Jiang and Jaden Schmit) and faculty sponsors Alan McCloud and Eric Jensen on their tremendous success.

The boys swimming and diving teams from Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South had impressive showings at their sectional tournament. The Red Devils came in first place and had the following individuals qualify for the state tournament.

The Hornets came in sixth place and had the following individuals qualify for the state tournament.

Conor Furlong and Sami Kassir from Central finished in second and fourth place respectively in diving. Per IHSA rules, only the sectional champion automatically advances to the state final. An additional 32 at-large divers will be chosen to compete at state based on their scores.

We congratulate both teams on their success at sectionals, and wish those moving on to state the best of luck.

We want to congratulate the wrestlers from District 86 who competed at the state tournament over the weekend. Marko Ivanisevic from Hinsdale Central finished in fifth place in the 220 lbs. weight class, while his teammate Cody Tavoso took sixth in the 132 lbs. weight class. Meanwhile, Alec Miller (152 lbs.), Manny Wallace (160 lbs.) and Griffin Carr (220 lbs.) from Hinsdale South competed hard in all their matches.

Great job, Red Devils and Hornets. We are very proud of you.

Kelly Klobach from Hinsdale Central turned in a great performance at the state final for girls gymnastics. She tied for fourth on the vault, took ninth on the uneven parallel bars and was 11th in the all-around. Her teammate Charlotte French also had a strong showing on the uneven parallel bars during the preliminary round that earned her a score of 8.575.

Kelly shared in an interview with The Hinsdalean that she doesn't plan on competing in college. With that in mind, we want to congratulate her on a fantastic finish to an amazing career in the sport. As for Charlotte, we look forward to following her accomplishments during her senior year.

We want to congratulate Kelsey Pettry from Hinsdale South on her outstanding performance at the state final for girls bowling in the wheelchair division.

Kelsey had three games where she scored over 100 (118, 119 and 122). She also showed the greatest round-by-round improvement of any bowler in the division when she bested her first round score (290) by nearly 50 pins in the second round (339).

Way to go, Kelsey.

Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South are teaming up with Young Hearts for Life (YH4L) to offer free heart screenings for all students. The screenings will take place at Central on March 24 and at South on April 7.

How important is it for young adults to get this done every two years? Thirteen students from Central had previously undiagnosed cardiac conditions identified during the last screening.

You can use the links below to learn more about YH4L's program, register your child for a screening and/or sign up to help out at the events.

Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central will be offering in-person preschool programs in April and May through their Child Care and Development classes. These programs, which are open and available to all families regardless of whether they live in the community, focus on developmental appropriateness, creativity, safety, independence and social skills. Discounts are available for any District 86 employee who is interested in enrolling their children.

If you have questions or need more information about the preschool program at South, please email Laura Hughes at lhughes@hinsdale86.org. If you have questions or need more information about the preschool program at Central, please email Lisa Sopiarz at lsopiarz@hinsdale86.org.

The counseling office from Hinsdale South received a bronze award from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) in recognition of the school's excellence in helping students from the class of 2021 with the financial aid process. You can learn more about ISAC and its recognition program by visiting https://www.isac.org/home/fafsa/2021.html.

We congratulate the counselors from South on this accomplishment.

Several students from Hinsdale Central earned awards during the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America's (FCCLA) regional competition. Zuzanna Sokolowski and Toral Bhatt won gold, while Chloe Chang and Sufia Iqba won silver.

We want to congratulate these students on their achievements. We also want to thank Elizabeth Meersman and Dawn Oler for the support and leadership they provide in their role as faculty sponsors for the school's FCCLA student organization.

We want to congratulate the following Hinsdale South students on being named the school's Breakfast Club winners for third quarter.

Teachers nominate students for the Breakfast Club award based on their academic or extracurricular accomplishments, contributions to the community or school spirit/pride.

Hinsdale Central recently recognized 12 individuals who were named Student of the Quarter by the school's various departments based on their leadership, kindness and skills as role models. Those who received the recognition included:

We congratulate these students on this honor.

Each month, the world language teachers from Hinsdale South nominate individuals for recognition as the World Language Students of the Month. These students have a strong interest in a world or classical language, demonstrate the traits of being accountable, respectful and engaged, and perform actions and exhibit an attitude that exemplify what it means to have South Pride.

Below are the students from South who earned this honor for February.

The Global Humanitarian Club from Hinsdale South is hosting a student-staff basketball game on Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. to benefit Save the Children's efforts to provide food, shelter and medical supplies to children in Afghanistan. This event is being organized in conjunction with the club's annual efforts to raise money and awareness for a humanitarian crisis.

Admission for the game, which will take place in South's gymnasium, is $3. Please click the image on the right to access a flyer for the event.

The next District 86 Board of Education meeting will be held on Thursday, Feb. 24. The agenda and packet of materials for the meeting will be posted on BoardDocs (https://bit.ly/394u9as) and shared via email tomorrow (Feb. 22).

You can access a more detailed breakdown of this data by building at https://bit.ly/3d93aws.

Employees who work in the administration building or are not assigned to a specific school - 100%