Three Oakville Senior High School students recently advanced to the St. Louis citywide competition of the second annual National Vocabulary Championship.

They joined 85 other St. Louis area high school students competing for an opportunity to advance to the national finals in March in Los Angeles, Calif.

Daniel Berger, Douglas May and Andy Mihalevich advanced to the St. Louis citywide event after placing among the top 88 vocabulary scholars of more than 11,000 St. Louis-area students taking the in-school qualifying exam.

Although the Oakville students did not win the citywide competition, each received a one-year Encyclopedia Britannica Online subscription. This year’s winner, Parkway West’s Rajiv Tarigopula, also received a $5,000 scholarship.

The National Vocabulary Championship is a nationwide academic competition that offers high school students the opportunity to win money toward college tuition.