Whiz Kid: Miller Place Senior Ranks in Top Ten of His Class

Name: Nick Hirdt - Age 17

School: Miller Place High School - Senior

Accomplishments: Hirdt currently ranks ninth in his senior class and will have taken eight Advanced Placement (A.P.) courses and two college level courses during his high school career. His high scores on the A.P. exams have earned him the College Board's A.P. Scholar with Honors Award. He has been on the high honor roll for every quarter of high school and has received the General Academic Excellence Award each year.

The senior serves as treasurer for the National Honor Society and is a member of the Foreign Language Honor Society for Spanish. He has participated in Mathletes, the Robotics Team and Varsity Club, which requires him to complete at least 25 hours of community service. His community service has included blood drives, food drives and volunteering at the district's summer track camp.

Nick played on the Junior Varsity soccer team as a freshman but caught the running bug the following spring and has since excelled in Varsity Spring Track, Varsity Winter Track and Varsity Cross Country. His main event is the mile, running it in 4:26 as a junior, just one second shy of Miller Place High School's record. This past fall he ran the high school's fastest 5K on the Sunken Meadow Cross Country in over 20 years.  

He has received awards for All-County, All-Division and All-League for cross country each year, as well as the award for All County Academic as a senior. Hirdt made States for cross country his junior and senior year, placed fourth in the county as an 11th grader and third in the county this year.

Outside of school, Nick has worked as a tutor and soccer referee. He has been recruited to run cross country for Lehigh University's D1 team, where he plans to study bioengineering and integrated business/engineering. He hopes to pursue a career in biomechanics and bioengineering.