ROCKFORD (WIFR) – For the 12th consecutive year, Keith Country Day School won the World Youth in Science and Engineering (WYSE) regional championship, hosted at Rock Valley College. The team netted a perfect score of 500 and garnered 19 individual medals.

“To have continued success in a competition like this really speaks to the quality of our faculty and our students,” said Raeann Jurgens, who mentors the WYSE team and is the school’s mathematics department chair.

This year’s performance was nothing short of dominating. Keith’s students earned first and second place medals in all seven competition categories (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, English, Mathematics, Physics) and in four of the seven categories, the school earned the third place medal as well.

Carter Davis (junior) and Oliva Tang (senior) led the way for the Cougars with two first place medals each. Six other students were multiple medal winners.

Designed as an academic challenge and administered by WYSE officials, the regional, sectional and state competitions are a series of tests created for the brightest high school students in Illinois and Missouri. Test material is drawn from senior high school and freshman level college curricula and written by teams of college and university faculty. Each test production team produces three tests of increasing levels of difficulty, regional, sectional and state finals. Students compete as individuals and as part of a team where they have 40 minutes to complete multiple-choice tests that range in length from 30 questions (computer science) to 100 questions (English).

With Monday’s victory, the Cougars will advance to the sectionals in March. The Cougars will need to finish first or second at the sectionals to qualify for the state championships in April. In 2007 Keith won the WYSE state championship. It was the first time a school in the Rockford region won the state title.

Keith Country Day School is an independent, nonsectarian, college-preparatory school. Located on a 15-acre campus overlooking the Rock River, Keith serves students from age three through grade 12 from the Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin area. The school is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools and fully accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. More information about Keith School is available at www.keithschool.com.