Several South Sound high school seniors are among the 16,000 across the nation to win semifinalist stature in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

The semifinalists earned the highest scores in each state on the 2008 Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. More than 1.5 million juniors from 22,000 high schools became eligible for the scholarship by taking the test.

The semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of seniors nationwide.

In the next stage, each finalist will be selected based on having an outstanding academic record throughout high school, a recommendation from the high school principal, and SAT scores that confirm his or her performance on the qualifying test.

A total of 8,200 National Merit Scholarships will be distributed, worth more than $36 million.

Here are the local semifinalists and their high schools:

Tonya Yu, Foss High School, Tacoma.

Carolyn Anderson, Stadium High School, Tacoma.

Eric Herde, Washington High School, Parkland.

Iean Drew, Austin Jung and Blake Walsh, Charles Wright Academy, University Place.

Geneva Goldwood, Lauren Siverly and Lisa Wallace, Annie Wright School, Tacoma.

Michael Pinkard, Puyallup High School, Puyallup.

Jung Bae, Lakes High School, Lakewood.

Kelsey Langlois, Graham-Kapowsin High School, Graham.

Marissa Masden, Auburn Adventist Academy, Auburn.

Ian Brown, Thomas Jefferson High School, Federal Way.

Catherine Jones, Enumclaw High School, Enumclaw.

Young Lee, River Ridge High School, Lacey.

Erin Adams and Patrick Haase, Timberline High School, Lacey.

Matt Misterek, The News Tribune