By Mary Hammers, Hillbrook writer
Courage, commitment, and focus: these are a few of the qualities shared by some of Hillbrook’s stand-out students who have been making news outside of school for their extracurricular activities. We want to congratulate their efforts and shine a spotlight on their achievements.
Shea Elmore, Class of 2021
Friday Fitness and the Hillbrook mile are paying off for Hillbrook 7th grader Shea Elmore who is making tracks in the running world. Shea is dominating the 11-12 girls division at the national level in both cross country and track.
Over the December break, Shea competed in the AAU Cross Country Nationals in Knoxville, Tennessee, winning first place in the 11-12 girls division, and beating the second place girl by a little over 8 seconds, with her finish time of 11:33 on the 1.86 mile course. Her team, Los Gatos Running Club, also came in first in the 11-12 girls division. Earlier in the year, Shea qualified for the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics and finished first in the 3,000m (10:15.77) and fourth in the 1,500m (4:55.69).
Shea found cross country in 5th grade and has never looked back. In fact, she never met a Hillbrook mile she didn’t love. Her hard work and dedication to the sport have also resulted in some Hillbrook bragging rights: Shea is the girl’s record holder for the Hillbrook mile with 5:40. She also is tied for the Cross Country County Championships with a 13:06 time on the 2.1 mile course. With her humble approach and positive attitude, Shea wins fans as easily as she does races.
Click the links below to read more about Shea’s accomplishments:
- Meet Youth Runner Blogger Shea Elmore
- KCAT TV 15 Interviews 7th Grade Runner Shea Elmore and Coach Willie Harmatz
Shea’s Athletics records:
Kaelen Dougan, Class of 2022
Professional soccer scouts are keeping an eye on 6th grader Kaelen Dougan, who is making a name for himself on the soccer pitch with the elite San Jose Earthquakes Academy. Kaelen was invited to play with the prestigious Earthquakes Academy team at just 10 years old, where he was so good, they asked him to play up with 12-year-olds. He’s now playing with the U-13 team and was the 3rd highest scorer this past season, with 6 goals in just 14 matches. Kaelen’s team was ranked 5th in the country by Top Drawer Soccer after finishing the season with an 11-2-0 record. Kaelen is on the national watch list due to his speed, playmaking abilities, and skill set.
You can read more about the soccer phenom here: Q-and-A with Kaelen Dougan from the San Jose Earthquakes
Rayan Gummiid, Class of 2020
Hillbrook 8th grader Rayan Gummiid is a rising chess champion in his category. Rayan recently came in 2nd place (u1250 category) in the prestigious 29th North American Open Chess championship held from Dec 26-29 2019, in Las Vegas. In doing so, Rayan beat out professional players three and four times his age. It was the first major tournament for Rayan since winning the US National Chess Championship in 2017. The North American Open is a highly-reputed annual chess tournament with close to a 1000 professional players participating, including several Grandmasters. In the under 1250 category, Rayan won against 40 to 60-year-old professionals playing games that lasted 3-5 hours each, stretching across 12-hour days.
Rayan’s parents report that a few days after returning from the exhausting tournament, he took his SSAT and achieved the highest score possible, in the 99th percentile.
December was an eventful month for Rayan as he took the lead in Hillbrook’s GeoBee, hosted by Middle School History teacher Vin Gingery. Students were quizzed on everything from world civilizations to “weird but true” facts about the continents. For the second year in a row, Rayan is headed to the National Geographic State GeoBee championships. His geo-savviness has placed him within the top 100 middle school students in all of California. He will compete in the State GeoBee later this month.
Rayan has called Hillbrook his second home since junior kindergarten.
