Mentor Schools Congratulate State Qualifiers

The Mentor Schools Board of Education and administration recognized some of the students who qualified for their respective state championships during the board's meeting Tuesday.

The students who were recognized include:

• the speech and debate team that, once again, qualified for the state competition.

In addition to making it to state, two members of the Student Congress were ranked second and seventh in Ohio.

• the Mentor High School competition cheerleading team, who qualified for their state championship for the second consecutive year.

"I've been working with these girls since July and we just finished in April, so it takes a lot of dedication for them," Coach Heather Ambrose said during the meeting.

• the Mentor High mock trial teams, one of which qualified for the state competition this year. The accomplishment of the team that competed at state -- Team Snollygoster -- was all the more impressive because it is comprised almost entirely of underclassmen.
• the Mentor High School CAD/engineering students for their success in the Youngstown State Robotics Competition on Match 13.

The teams -- which also included students from Eastlake, Willoughby and Wickliffe -- built autonomous robots that had to be able to pick up, move and stack packages in a set amount of time.

The senior engineering team received second place at the competition for their robot's design.

• Justin Fritts was going to be recognized at the meeting for being named Ohio's Mr. Basketball. However, that had to be rescheduled because Fritts had to play for the Cardinals baseball team against Brunswick Tuesday.