Four Oxford students have been announced as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.

Kayla Owens and Joshua Caraway of Oxford High School have been named as well as two Oxford area homeschool students, Sarah B. Dabbs and Maximillian Keene.

The Oxford students are four of the 16,000 semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship Program, which has been going for 61 years.

The finalists will be announced next spring.

Around 90 percent of the remaining semifinalists will attain first standing, and nearly half of those finalists will receive the title of National Merit Scholar and a scholarship.

Owens, Caraway, Dabbs and Maximillian are four out of about 1.5 million high school juniors entered from across the nation.