Montgomery Catholic's Tyynismaa Brings Home 3rd State Cross Country Title, Girls' Team 4A State Runner-Up

November 12, 2016,  the exceptionally fine men and women of Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School went after the state cross country championships.  When the smoke had cleared, both teams had acquitted themselves exceptionally well and the girls' team walked away as the state's 4A runner-up!

The Catholic girls were led by the incomparable Amaris Tyynismaa.  With virtually no one in proximity after 100 meters into the race, Amaris ran hard trying to push herself.  In the end she ran an excellent time and won her historic, third consecutive State Championship.  Isabelle Cochran, Catholic's own, stepped into the race seeded far behind two runners from other schools.  When the smoke cleared, she almost pulled off second, earning her All-State honors with an awesome third place while leading the entire team with an unheard of forty second improvement over the 5k distance.  Katie Galvin ran 3rd for the Racing Knights, earning All-State honors with an overall 13th place off an excellent 12 second improvement.  Virginia Speirs finished as the Knight's 8th runner in 98th with a superb 23 second improvement.  Annabelle Starrett ran her fastest time in the last two years and ran a season best by 16 seconds.  Katelyn Stark also competed hard despite a severely injured foot.

For the Catholic boys, Zach Kroeger ran like a thoroughbred unchecked and at one point was in 2d place during the highly competitive race.  Facing numerous challenges in the middle of the race, he finished strong in 10th place, earning All State honors having run 4 seconds faster than he ever ran before.  Grant Walker also earned All State honors with his 15th place effort.  Chris Valencia, Catholic's #4, broke 18 minutes for the first time, pulling out a 15 second improvement.  Cam Searcy showed the boy's best improvement of the meet, running his best race to date while dropping a full 30 seconds off his best time while running 5th for the team.  The Knight's #8, Sam Leslie, also ran a personal best.  Finally, Joe Schmidt, despite running on a severely sprained ankle, just missed running a personal best while running in the #6 slot for Catholic.

Overall, a superb season for the Racing Knights, making their coaches Ed Wright, Hollis Johnson and Kevin Madden very proud of the effort and heart of the 2016 Catholic Cross Country Team.

Submitted by Kevin Madden

Montgomery Catholic Athletes Sign to Play Sports at the Next Level

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School held a signing ceremony for seniors Michaelyn Foster and Zachary Van Alst inside the Library on the Montgomery Catholic high school campus at 3:30 p.m., on Tuesday, November 15, 2016. 

Foster with her coach
Abby Beesley.

Foster, will play college softball at Auburn University at Montgomery next year. Foster came to Montgomery Catholic as a sophomore and 2017 will be her third season with the Knights, as a pitcher and utility player. She began playing softball in kindergarten with the East Montgomery Dixie Youth League. She is a two-time 1A-4A All-Metro player, she has been named All-State 2nd team in 2015, and All-State honorable mention in 2016. She is a member of National Honor Society with a 3.5 GPA. She has also played basketball at Montgomery Catholic for three years.

Foster is the daughter of the late Michael Foster and Chastity Foster of Montgomery.

Coached at Montgomery Catholic by Abby Beesley.

Van Alst with his wrestling coaches
David Parker and Coy Hunter.

Van Alst will join the United States Air Force Academy wrestling team next year. This is Van Alst's sixth year to wrestle for the Knights. He has won five consecutive Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) wrestling state championships including the 2016 title in the Class 1A-5A, 132-pound weight class. Van Alst finished the 2016 season undefeated with a record 50-0. He has won four sectional titles to go along with his five state championships, while recording an overall career record of  233-12 . He was also named Most Valuable Wrestler of the State Tournament for Class 1A-5A. He has been named a National All-American twice for Roman Greco wrestling in 2015 & 2016. He is a member of National Honor Society and has a 3.88 GPA, and was named an Academic All-American by the National High School Coaches Association. 

Van Alst is the son of Jennifer and Bob Van Alst of Prattville. Coached at Montgomery Catholic by Coy Hunter.

Congratulations to both Zach and Michaelyn, Montgomery Catholic is looking forward to following their careers at the collegiate level.

Mission: Found in 1873,  Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School is an integral part of the Catholic Church's mission to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As an adult community, we share in the responsibility to prepare students for college and beyond while helping them grow to become persons of faith, virtue and wisdom.

Montgomery Catholic Alumus Named 2017 Marshall Scholar

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School's Class of 2013 Valedictorian, Zachary Hulcher has been named a 2017 Marshall Scholar.

 Zachary Hulcher named 2017 Marshall Scholar. Photo Credit: Casey Atkins

MIT released the following regarding Hulcher's career at MIT and his plans as a Marshall Scholar:

Funded by the British government, the Marshall Scholarships provide exceptional young Americans the opportunity for two years of graduate study in any field at a U.K. institution. Up to 40 scholarships are awarded each year in the rigorous nationwide competition. Scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit, leadership potential, and ambassadorial potential. 

Zachary is pursuing a dual major in electrical engineering and computer science and physics, with a minor in mathematics. As a Marshall Scholar, he will study and perform research in high-energy physics at Cambridge University, following in the footsteps of such luminary physicists as Newton, Maxwell, and Hawking. Hulcher plans to earn a PhD and, as a professor of physics, make contributions to expand the field of high energy physics. 

Hulcher spent his sophomore summer conducting research with Professor Yen-Jie Lee at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. He returned to CERN his junior summer to continue with and present on his research. Since the fall of 2015, he has been a research assistant in the group of professor Krishna Rajagopal of MIT's Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Physics, which is part of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science. Hulcher has been improving the analysis and modeling of how CMS measurements can be used to probe quark-gluon plasma, a substance connected to the Big Bang that may lead to greater understanding of the formation of the universe. “Zach took on, mastered, and then drove a theoretical physics research project,” observes Rajagopal. “He will be the principal author of a paper describing an important advance, and he showed fearless confidence in giving a talk at an international workshop in which he showed new results (some only hours old) that garnered much attention. All the while, he is both well-grounded and well-rounded.” 

Hulcher is also motivated by a desire to teach others. He has been a teaching assistant for the physics department at MIT, a grader in the mathematics department, and a tutor for MIT’s chapter of Eta Kappa Nu, the national honor society for electrical engineering and computer science. Through MISTI's Global Teaching Labs, he traveled to Xalapa, Mexico, to assist with courses focused on mobile and internet technologies, and he taught courses on physics to high school students in Italy and Israel. 

Since his freshman year, Hulcher has been an offensive lineman with MIT’s varsity football team and was named this year to the NEWMAC all-academic team for his outstanding scholarly and athletic performance. Hulcher also serves on the executive board for the MIT chapter of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society.

Hulcher went to Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School from Kindergarten to 12th grade where he graduated top of his class and received a scholarship to attend MIT. He is the son of Richard and Vickie Hulcher of Montgomery.

His parents said, "We are very proud of what Zach has accomplished and very excited for the adventure and promise ahead for him!"

View the full press release here: http://news.mit.edu/2016/four-mit-students-marshall-scholars-1128
Learn more about the prestigious Marshall Scholarship here: http://www.marshallscholarship.org/

Montgomery Catholic's Middle School Help Serve those in Need this Christmas

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School's Middle School SGA members Ines Gonzales, Ellie Poole, Matthew Reardon, Steven Robinson, DJ Carter and Chloe Walden purchased Christmas gifts for a family the campus is helping through Catholic Social Services. SGA sponsor and school counselor Mrs. Sarah Rech led the Advent service project by taking fourteen SGA members shopping at Target on December 5 to choose gifts for the family, serving those in need and making their Advent count.