Merrimack High School's Top 10 Student: Robert Sawdey

MERRIMACK, NH — Robert Sawdey has been named the 10th top student among Merrimack High School's 2019 graduating class. In his time at the school, Robert has taken the most rigorous courses possible, including Advanced Placement courses as an underclassman and many honors courses throughout the past four years. He is the son of Kristine and Lee Sawdey and the brother of Thomas Sawdey.

Robert has been a competitive chess player since elementary school and has earned several honors over the past four years. Most notably, he won the 2015 and 2017 New Hampshire Scholastic State Chess Championships and was chosen to represent New Hampshire at the prestigious Denker Tournament of High School Championships in Norfolk, Virginia, in the summer of 2017. He also placed 28th on tiebreaks at the 2017 National Scholastic Grade Level Chess Championships in Nashville, Tennessee as a sophomore.

Robert has also participated in Science Olympiad, where he competed in the events Disease Detectives, Experimental Design and Materials Science. He was a member of the 2018 team that won the state competition and went on to the nationals in Fort Collins, Colorado.

As an athlete, Robert competed on the varsity cross country team at Merrimack High School, as well as indoor track and outdoor track. He became captain of the cross country team his senior year. He has run multiple half-marathons in his high school years and hopes to join a running team in college to run many more.

Next school year, Robert will attend Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he plans to major in cognitive and brain sciences.