Thursday, April 30, 2015

School Year Accomplishments and Honors

Athletic Director Jon Borer with "Athlete of the Year"
 award winner Jake Batenhorst
The 1st major award at the 2015 Awards Night was the presentation of the Athlete of the Year to Jake Batenhorst.  In his years at Mount Michael Jake served as the Knight’s quarterback in football and was also a starter for the Knights in basketball and baseball.

12 Season Athletes: The following seniors were recognized for having participated in athletics every season during their years at the Mount:
         Jake Batenhorst, Harrison Hohman, Logan Kalkowski, Caleb Pflug, Garrett Raabe, Mick Steier

HOBY Youth Leadership Award: Cade Johnson

Omaha Exchange Club Sophomore of the Year: Joe Coldiron

Cornhusker Boys State:  Michael Fischer and Jack Morrisey

The President’s Award for Educational Excellence: This is an honorary award presented to seniors who meet the following criteria:  they must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or better and tests at the 85th percentile or above on either the ACT (which is a 28) or the SAT (which is a 1900).
Mount Michael Award recipient Logan Kalkowski with
Head of School Dr. David Peters
These students must demonstrate high motivation, initiative, integrity, intellectual depth, leadership qualities, judgement, involvement in community service, extra-curricular activities.  Ryan Anderson, Cameron Bretsen, David Whee-Young Choi, Jonathan Collins, Marcus Cronin, Augustin  deMayo, Andrew Ernst, Zachary Frevert, John Gutsmiedl, Harrison Hohman, Alex Hotovy, Dujin Lee, Ashton Legenza, Dun Fletcher Lin, Jared Mikuls, Andrew Pace, Young-Joon Park, Zachrey  Starman, Eric Sullivan, Lucas Tucker, Andrew Whitaker, Thomas Wooten.

The night culminated in the Mount Michael award.  The Mount Michael Award goes to the student who most epitomizes the values of Mount Michael.  The selection is made by secret ballot by the Mount Michael faculty. Logan Kalkowski is this year’s recipient.

Congratulations to these young men and all of the other outstanding students whose accomplishments were acknowledged at the Mount Michael Awards Night.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Academic Decathlon: 3rd Place Nationally

Mount Michael’s Academic Decathlon team wrapped up their season by placing 3rd nationally in the Small School Online Academic Decathlon.

As individuals the Knights won numerous medals and Jacob Ramaekers finished 2nd overall in the nation on the varsity level.

Jacob Ramaeker
2nd Place Nationally 
Winning Medals for the Knights is as follows:

Honors Level:

  • Jon Collins: 1st Mathematics


Scholastic Level:

  • Jared Mikuls: 1st Art, 2nd Literature 
  • Alex Hotovy: 2nd Literature, 3rd Mathematics
  • Adam Terasinski: 2nd Social Studies


Varsity Level:

  • Jacob Ramaekers: 1st Social Science, 2nd Art, 2nd  Essay, 2nd Economics, 3rd Mathematics
  • Walt Wear: 3rd Economics 


In the competition each team is divided into 3 levels according to GPA. The three levels are Honors, Scholastic, and Varsity.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Chemistry Teams Sweep Division Titles


At the University of Nebraska Omaha Chemistry Field Day the Knights took both the primary and the advanced division titles for the first time.
 Congratulation Knights!
Team Mercury: Advanced Division Champions
Edwin Huang '16, Tony Tang '16, Zach Frevert '15, Ben Hynes '16
Team Uranium: Primary Division Champions
Jose Amian '17, Ryuta Kure '17, Michael Ecker '17, Alex Earsley '17

Team Hydrogen: Balancing Equations Champions 
Ryan Reid '16,  Luke Krajewski '16, Logan Baumberger '16, Elliott Heineman '16, Fletcher Lin '15



Advanced Division Team Members

Primary Division Team Members


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Notable Editor produced Super Hero Knights video

Mount Michael's Night of Knights video for the annual fundraiser was created by Tom Elkins who was recently featured in an article from the Omaha World Herald.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

World Robotics Competitions

Two Mount Michael robotics teams competed with 450 high school teams from around the world at the Vex Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky last week.

Team 1970K, Knight Shift, with Sophomores Nick Huetter and Reilly Jackson, and Freshmen Nolan Huetter and Nolan Gottsch finished 9-1 and in 6th place. They moved on to the elimination matches as alliance captains, where they made it to the quarterfinals. They also finished in 15th place in the WORLD in robot skills, in 7th place among United States teams, and  in 1st place among Nebraska teams.

Team 1970B, Talladega Knights, with Senior Chase Goddard and Freshmen Will Fleissner, Blake Worsham, Ethan Tylski and Lukas Williams finished 7-3 in 18th place but did not move on in the competition. They finished in 50th place in programming skills. Way To Go Knights!

Nick Huetter, Nolan Gottsch, Reilly Jackson, Nolan Huetter




2015 Spring Concert

Mount Michael music students and speech team entertained a crowd of family and friends with a wonderful selection of music for this year's Spring Concert.  The night was particularly note worthy because it was the last performance under the direction of Mrs. Marilyn Theis who has directed our music program for over 30 years.  She will continue to teach drafting classes but is looking forward to a less hectic schedule.  Thank you Mrs. Theis for all the years of dedication.  Mrs. Kunkel will teach band and choir starting next fall.

Files of the individual pieces performed at the concert are available on the student shared drive in a folder named: "2015 Spring Concert"  Feel free to make copies.

Spring 2015 Spring Sampler

MM Band
Liberty Bell March………………………………………..Sousa
Into The West………………………………………….Shore
Alexander’s Ragtime Band………………………………Berlin

Persuasive Speech: Eric Zhang

Guitar Solo: Jack Blaser
Prelude # 4………………………………Hector Villa Lobos

MM Choir
Come Travel With Me………………………………………….Farthing
Homeward Bound……………………………………………………. Keen/Althouse
                Joseph Melia & Jae Jun Park – Soloists
Rhythm Of Life…………………………………………………..Arr. Barnes

Informative Speech: Case McNally

Vocal Solo: Andrew Whitaker
The Vagabond………………………………………..Vaughn Williams

Entertainment Speech: Taesung Kim

Omaha Academy Choir: Kat Doebel, Director; Rebecca Alfieri, Accompanist
Voices Of Earth …………………………………….Chatman
                The Bird And The Hour
                Snow
                Voices Of Earth
Dubala

Combined Choirs
 I Believe…………………………………………………………Miller
Carley Ayers & Andrew Whitaker – Soloists

Viva La Musica!.......................................Brunner

Monday, April 20, 2015

National Honor Society Inducts Thirty-five New Members


At a school assembly new members of the Mount Michael Edward Malone Chapter of the National Honor Society were sworn in.  Congratulations Knights! More Photos

Seniors
Zachary Frevert, Samuel Heimerman, Conor Luff, Andrew Pace, Nathan Thomas, Reed Tiwald

Juniors
Tyler Degener, Michael Fischer, Paul Forget, Nathan Hazard, Junbin Huang, JT Hudson, Zachary Hytrek, Christian Keller, Aaron Meyer, Jacob Ramaekers, Tony Tang, Jackson Thompson, Samuel Van Haute

Sophomores
Andrew Ahn, Zachary Cairney, Nathan Carpenter, Joseph Coldiron, Alexander Earsley, Michael Ecker, Caiden Groff, Patrick Halpin, Peyton Hottovy, Nicholas Huetter, Daniel Jewell, Broden Kaps, Nash Kelly, Luka Mixan, Benedict Murray, Henry O'Callaghan

Monday, April 13, 2015

'89 Alumnus, Fr. Dan Hendrickson S.J. featured in OWH article by Mike Kelly

The Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, center, who will take over as president of Creighton University on July 1, on the CU campus with his older brother, Ryan, left, and Daniel’s twin, the Rev. Scott Hendrickson, also a Jesuit priest. The three grew up in Fremont and attended Elkhorn Mount Michael Benedictine High.

When he walks a new path in life as president of Creighton University, Father Daniel Hendrickson will tread in comfort — in cowboy boots.
Black boots have been his preferred mode of foot transportation for nearly 20 years, ever since a Jesuit priest let him borrow a pair.
Hendrickson wore boots when he worked at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and he wore them when he moved on to study philosophy at Fordham University, where a Jesuit looked at the student’s feet in dismay.
“He said, ‘Are you really going to wear those boots in New York City?’ ” Hendrickson recalled with a smile. “I said, ‘Absolutely!’ ”  - Read Entire Article on Omaha.com

Super Hero Knights

Thank you to all the Super Heroes whose great efforts made the 2015 Night of Knights a tremendous success. 

Photos by Fletcher Line - More Photos

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Journalism Students Earn UNO Awards

Homer Xu, Harrison Hohman, Mick Steier, Adam Terasinski

The journalism team competed in the U.N.O High School Media contest in the small school division. Four students placed.

Harrison Hohman-Best Sports Story 1st, Best News Story 3rd, Best Column 3rd
Adam Terasinski-Best Column 3rd
Mick Steier- Best Double page Layout 1st
Homer Xu-Best Photograph, News/Feature 1st

The awards ceremony took place at the Scott Conference center.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Three Knights welcomed into the Church at Easter Vigil

Ian Kirwan, Ray Dorsey, Abbot Michael, Edwin Huang, Tony Tang, Blake Worsham, John Gutsmiedl

In a historic first the Easter Vigil at Mount Michael saw three students become members of the Catholic Church.  Junbin “Edwin” Huang ‘16 and Ray Dorsey ‘16 received the sacrament of baptism.   Blake Worsham ‘18 then joined them in receiving the sacraments of Confirmation and Communion.  Muxuan “Tony” Tang ‘16 was Edwin’s sponsor, Ian Kirwan ’16 was Ray Dorsey’s sponsor and John Gutsmiedl  ’15 was Blake’s sponsor. Alex Davis led them this school year in preparation for this great event.  Congratulations to all three new members of the Church. This year’s Vigil service will be remembered in a very special way.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Slam Poetry Team Advances

Joey Recker, Kevin Arul, Tae Sung Kim, Thomas D'Aquila
On Tuesday, March 24th, Mount Michael Benedictine took part in a Poetry Slam competing against Marian, Omaha North and St. Luke's Lutheran.  A bout consists of 5 rounds.  In the first 4 rounds, each team sends an individual from their own team to recite a poem.  The fifth round consists of the entire group reading a piece.  In the fifth round the group presented the poem "The Flood"

The team has done remarkably well for having so many rookies.  Tae Sung was the only Mouont Michael competitor last year.  For the first time ever, the Knights have advanced to the semi finals and are ranked 10th out of 30 teams.


The semi final will take place at Witherspoon hall in the Joslyn Art Museum on Wednesday, April 8th at 5:30 pm.