Inter-Lakes High School - The Top 10 of 2011

MEREDITH — "We've all been friends since elementary school," said Chloe Hood, the lone young woman among the top 10 graduating seniors at Inter-Lakes High School. "Except for Nick (Sapack)," Matt Otis reminded her, prompting Sapack to explain that he came to town from Maryland in sixth grade.

"We're a brotherhood," declared Austin Hart. "A fellowship," Adam Merkwan corrected him out of respect for Hood.

Ringing a table in the guidance department on a sunny afternoon, all 10 agreed that they owed a large measure of their individual academic success to their mutual friendship. "We've competed with one another," said Cody Cook, who represents the student body on the School Board, "but it's always friendly competition."

"We push each other," said Teddy Willey, the class president, who will study economics and history at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. with his sights set on law school and a political career. The group includes the three remaining class officers — Merkwan the vice-president, Sapack the treasurer and Evan Mega the secretary.

"We're driven by fear of criticism," Hood remarked, drawing peals of laughter for her candor. "We all work really hard and take things seriously," she continued, "but we also have a lot of fun."

"If you saw us in class," Cook added, "you wouldn't believe we're serious students."

Within their fellowship, there are smaller, equally close partnerships, reflecting the diverse talents and interests of the ten. Cook, Willey and Hart, together with Galen Muskat and Sven Gustafson, formed the LifeSmarts team that captured the school's third consecutive state championship. Their victory earned them a trip to Hollywood, where they met Jay Leno and Rob Lowe on the set of the Tonight Show, before placing second in their third bid for a national crown.

This spring Eliot Johnson, who plays piano, will join Hart on saxophone, Merkwan on drums, Sapack on trumpet and guitar and Mega on saxophone and guitar, in New York and Pennsylvania where the quintet will participate in a concert and jazz band competition.

Sapack and Matt Otis played together on the Inter-Lakes boys' basketball team; Gustafson, Merkwan and Hart made up the core of the school's Alpine ski team; and Hart, Merkwan, Muskat and Willey ranked as the top Nordic ski team in the state. For good measure Merkwan, who ran track in the spring, set a school record in the 800 meters and fell four seconds shy of the record in the 1500 meters.

Half of the 10 plan on pursuing engineering in college. Otis and Johnson will both attend Northeastern University in Boston, where each with a display of good humor said he would not share a room with the other. Otis said he has yet to chose a field of engineering while Johnson said that along with engineering he was weighing computer science and music. Sapack will study engineering at the University of New Hampshire while aerospace engineering has drawn Merkwan to Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. Mega plans to begin with engineering at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where a three-year course is completed with a year at Columbia University in New York, but like Johnson is also eying music, either as a production or sound engineer, which he said would require transferring to another school.

Both Gustafson and Hart have chosen St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, a mere 15 miles from the river of the same name dividing the United States and Canada. Gustafson plans to study particle physics as well as spend a year abroad at a Swedish university while Hart, who will bid for a spot on the alpine ski team, is considering a major in geology.

Muskat will pursue a pre-med course at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he also hopes to ply the waters of Cayuga Lake as a member of the lightweight crew.

Following a trip to Ireland, Cook will enroll at the University of Chicago to study economics in one of the most celebrated departments in the country in anticipation of a career in international relations and commerce.

Staying closer to home, Hood will attend the University of New Hampshire to study French. And unlike her classmates, she will not go to college alone, but in the company of "Carry," her six year old chestnut thoroughbred. Together they will help the UNH Equestrian Team, defend its title as northeast champions of the Interscholastic Horse Show Association. After listening to the majors and aspirations of her nine male counterparts, Hood remarked "I'll only have a foreign language."

What these 10 have achieved in their time together has prepared them well to succeed without one another.