Richard Montgomery High School’s Nadia Estrada won the 135 lb weight class 2022 Girls’ State Championship at the Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro– her 2nd state title.
She won it all at 122 lbs in 2020, one week before everything shut down due to Covid-19 restrictions and was unable to defend her championship last year due to continued restrictions.
Nadia recovered from a surgically repaired meniscus in July of 2021. She tore the MCL in the same knee in September while training, but that injury did not require surgery.
The surgeon told her that her wrestling season was done and that she’d have to wait until next year. She was cleared to train on February 1st, so she decided to make a come back attempt and trained for the entire month leading up to the tournament.
She beat Brooke Bickers out of Boonsboro High School in the finals by decision,12-7.
Isaac Applebaum has made it to the Jeopardy! College finals. He is a junior at Stanford University, majoring in Computational Biology. Applebaum is from Bethesda and graduated from Richard Montgomery High School in 2019, where he also played on the baseball team and ran cross country. Applebaum is also a musician, a jazz pianist, which he says is a big part of his identity.
In the first quarterfinals matchup of the two-week Jeopardy College Championship, Applebaum pulled off a comeback win to defeat Gus Guszkowski of Dartmouth and Catherine Zhang of Cornell. He won by correctly identifying Charles Torrey as the abolitionist thought to have given the Underground Railroad its name during final Jeopardy.
He did it again in the semifinals when he was $1,800 behind first place at the end of the Double Jeopardy round before identifying “irises” as what a 1525 textbook on anatomy states is being so different of colours and could also be called rainbows.
In an interview with ABC7, he talked about what he missed the most about the DMV. “One thing I miss about the DMV is seasons. Because in the Bay Area, the weather is the same every single day. You wake up, you go outside, it’s like 50, 60 degrees, it’s sunny, there are a couple of clouds and then in winter, it rains sometimes, but no snow. It’s not like fall. The weather is kind of the same. And I like that, as someone who has to bike to class and be outside, but also when I was home over winter break, we had these beautiful snow days. And we were all just like, go outside and walk around and that there’s nothing like that in the Bay Area. So I miss the snow in the winter. I miss all the leaves changing colors in the fall. I do not necessarily miss all the rain that we get in the DC area.”
Applebaum has the opportunity to win $250,000 become Jeopardy! National College Champion if he were to win on Tuesday, February 22nd.
Jess Agyepong, a Paint Branch High School alumna, also participated in Jeopardy! College. She’s a senior majoring in biology at Howard University and risked it all when she went to Final Jeopardy tied for first in her quarterfinal matchup. Unfortunately, she came up short in a valiant effort.
Arushi Singh, a senior at Richard Montgomery High School and Rockville, Md., resident, was awarded first prize in the 2021 Gaithersburg Book Festival poetry contest for high school students for her poem “Leaking Memories.”
Hana O’Looney Elected the Student Member of the Board
Per MCPS:
Hana O’Looney, a junior at Richard Montgomery High School, has been elected the Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) for the 2021-2022 school year. Ms. O’Looney’s term begins on July 1, 2021.
All secondary students were eligible to vote virtually in the SMOB election and nearly 33,000 students cast ballots. Ms. O’Looney received 78.3 percent of the vote, while her opponent, Henry Kaye, a junior at Richard Montgomery High School, received 21.3 percent. This SMOB election was held remotely on April 22–23 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms. O’Looney serves as vice president of the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association, and as chair of MoCo EmpowHER. She has also served as president of Montgomery County Junior Councils (MCJC), the countywide middle school student government; on the MCPS District Assessment Committee and on the Systemwide Wellness Committee.
The SMOB is a voting member of the Montgomery County Board of Education. The SMOB can vote on matters related to collective bargaining, capital and operating budgets, and school closings, reopenings and boundaries. The SMOB cannot vote on negative personnel actions. The SMOB is not paid, but does receive a $5,000 college scholarship, Student Service Learning hours, and one honors-level social studies credit.
Ms. O’Looney will replace Nick Asante, a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, who will graduate in June.
For more information, visit the Student Member of the Board website.
Gilhool was living in California where he is the tour manager for Dawes.
Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith and his wife, actress/singer Mandy Moore, are mourning the loss of their close friend.
Moore posted photos of Gilhool along with a heartbreaking tribute to their dear friend.
Many MoCo residents and longtime friends of Gilhool reached out to let us know of his MoCo ties and huge heart.
We are told he leaves behind a girlfriend and young son. Our condolences go out to his family.
Per TooFab.com:
