Officials last week announced the names of about 16,000 semifinalists in the 52nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance.

About 15,000 semifinalists will advance to the finalist level

and all Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen from this group.

The following are local semifinalists:

Moorpark High School: Zachary Geiger and Lauren Hickey.

Royal High School: Wyatt Lienhard.

Santa Susana High School: Lindsay Hennes and Emily Piper.

Simi Valley High School: Steven Tran.