17 teams set for coding contest Arkansas high schoolers face off May 5 at ASU campus

GENTRY -- Seventeen Arkansas high school teams from across the state will compete for personal and school awards in the second annual All-State Coding Competition on May 5 at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Department of Education on Feb. 27 announced the 17 winning teams from the All-Region Coding Competitions that took place around the state. A total of 76 teams competed in the regional events, said Kimberly Friedman, a spokesman for the Education Department.

"When I partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education in 2016 to announce the first All-Region and All-State Coding Competitions, I knew that Arkansas' bright and talented young minds would rise to meet the challenge," Hutchinson said. "I am confident that the members of this year's teams will continue to impress us with their creativity and innovation in the 2018 competition."

The teams, including one from Gentry, advancing to the All-State Coding Competition are:

• Arkansas High School: David Gustafson, Brayden Melton and Kaylie Tipton;

• Arkansas School for Math, Science and the Arts: Benjamin Allen, John Ostermueller and Noah Sherry;

• Bryant High School: John Baglio and Carson Moore;

• Cabot High School: Shann Hyder and Ethan Peck;

• Central High School in Little Rock: Anne Li, Zhaoying Li and John Ricard;

• Conway High School: Hunter Fleming, Jonathan Hopkins and Archer Murry;

• Gentry High School: Matthew Anderson, William Babb and Jonathan Brinkley;

• Greenbrier High School: Brian Corker, Samuel Hannink and Preston Starkey;

• Lake Hamilton High School: Zoie Keys, Ian Panzer and William Zeigler;

• Lonoke High School: Anthony Addison, Christian Klein and Jonathan Walker;

• Manila High School: Christian Booker, Hunter Hawkins and Grant Wilkins;

• Rogers Heritage High School: Luis Guerra, Allyson Hayes and Adam Siwiec;

• Rogers High School: Adam Eisa, David Daniel and Addison See;

• Russellville High School: Illiana Brown, Ronan Devlin and Michael Draughon;

• Southside High School: Tyler Saitang, Alex Siebenmorgan and Martin Tran;

• Springdale High School: Samantha Quintero and David Welan;

• White Hall High School: Alec Gibbs, Connor Jones and Ryan Smith.

Each member of the first-place team at the state competition will receive a $2,000 award that will be deposited into a 529 college savings plan.

Each member of the second-place team will receive a $1,000 award deposited into a savings plan, and each member of the third-place team will receive $500 deposited into a plan.

Schools that sponsored the first-place, second-place and third-place teams will receive $10,000, $6,000 and $4,000 to support their computer-science programs.

General News on 03/14/2018