Eight area seniors will be honored Sunday night with 24 other students-athetes from around the state at the 25th annual WIAA Scholar-Athlete banquet at the Westwood Conference Center in Wausau.

The eight area honorees are: Bradie Ewing of Richland Center (Division 2 boys); Ellie Arkin of Reedsburg and Traci Wileman of Edgerton (Division 2 girls); Ashley Beutler of New Glarus, Briana Kaiser of Cuba City and Emily Muller of Lancaster (Division 3 girls); Allison Fanta of Hillsboro and Kiara Lemminger of Johnson Creek (Division 4 girls).

 Wileman, Beutler and Lemminger are the first students from their schools to earn the WIAA's highest academic award. There were 638 nominees -- 308 boys and 330 girls -- from 355 of the WIAA's 505 member schools.

 To qualify for the award, a nominee must have earned at least four varsity letters through the first half of his or her senior year and maintained a cumulative 3.0 grade-point average of at least on a 4.0 scale. Sixteen of the 32 winners this year had 4.0 GPAs and 18 of the 32 had earned at least 10 varsity letters.

 Longtime Madison West coach Peg Mueller will be the featured speaker at Sunday's ceremony. Mueller coached Regents teams to state girls basketball titles in 1976 and 1982, state girls golf titles in 1973 and 1974 and state girls track and field titles in 1974, 1975, 1980, 1981 and 1982.

 Here is the complete list of 2008 WIAA Scholar-Athletes:

 Division 1 boys -- Alexander Becka, Manitowoc; Jeffrey Lemmer, Milwaukee Tech; Joseph Stilin, Milwaukee King; Mitch Sutton, Plover.

 Division 1 girls -- Kelly Bogard, Kimberly; Katie Cumming, Hudson; Janelle Gabrielsen, Menomonee Falls; Carolyn Kishaba, Eau Claire Memorial.

 Division 2 boys -- Bradie Ewing, Richland Center; Kevin Feick, Plymouth; Bradley Hallberg, Barron; Tyler Muckenhirn, Osceola.

 Division 2 girls -- Ellie Arkin, Reedsburg; Rae Davis, West Salem; Brynn Larsen, Oconto Falls; Traci Wileman, Edgerton.

 Division 3 boys -- Kyle Narveson, Random Lake; Jordan Rumpel, Arcadia; Peter Walsh, Danbury; Sam Winters, Pittsville.

 Division 3 girls -- Ashley Beutler, New Glarus; Briana Kaiser, Cuba City; Emily Muller, Lancaster; Alyssa Ryan, Grantsburg.

 Division 4 boys -- Gregory Kopacz, Flambeau; Scott Popelka, White Lake; Nick Rogness, Eleva-Strum; Jon Trzebiatowski, Rosholt.

 Division 4 girls -- Allison Fanta, Hillsboro; Kiara Lemminger, Johnson Creek; Kaitlin Randolph, Drummond; Jocelyn Ver Velde, Sheboygan Christian.