Eleven students from Madison High School and three from Marshall High School were named 2012 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists last week by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

It's the second year in a row Madison has had 11 semifinalists -- the school has had more semifinalists in the past two years then the past two decades, Assistant Principal Yusef Azimi said.

Across the county, 234 students were named semifinalists, a Fairfax County Public Schools record, officials said in a press release. 

Madison had the second highest number of semifinalists from a single school across the country, falling only behind Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST), which has 156 semifinalists.

Semifinalists were chosen because of their high scores on the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Around 16,000 high school seniors across the country were named semifinalists this year. They'll now compete for 8,300 National Merit Scholarship awards worth $34 million.

Finalists are named in the spring of 2012. 

Of the 11 semifinalists from Madison last year, three attended the University of Virginia and two attended William and Mary, Azimi said. The others attend Georgetown, Cornell, Princeton, Virginia Tech, University of Alabama and Reed College.

Madison also had 35 students last year recognized as commended students in the merit program, Azimi said.

The semifinalists are:

Madison High School:  Brian Ammer, Lindsay Brents, William Brown, Harold Hild, Kailyn Hornbeck, Bridget Jamison, Ye Eun Jeong, Lindsey Joost, Andre Lindenfelser, Paul Psarakis, and Jackson Simon.

Marshall High School:  Elizabeth Culbertson, Jonathan Gracia, and Brian Potter.