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AP's Val, Sal Tried To Tie For Top Prize

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

From left: Casey McKibben is this year's salutatorian and Michelle Caibio is this year's valedictorian at Avon Park High School.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: May 7, 2008

AVON PARK — Michelle Caibio and Casey McKibben have kept each other up on their school work, studied together, gone to the same church and will both call the University of Florida their next school.

They tried to earn the same grade point average to share Avon Park High School's valedictorian prize together, but that was one of the few math problems Michelle and Casey couldn't figure out.

"The (school guidance) counselors wouldn't tell us how to tie ... which made us mad," Casey said. "I got a 'B' in calculus, which took that one hundredth of a point."

Michelle even rejected an anatomy course to slow herself down after Casey stumbled with a "B" in a calculus class, while Casey tacked on more advanced courses to catch up with her.

In the end, though, Michelle's GPA was 5.24, and made her the sole valedictorian. Casey's was 5.23, and he settled for salutatorian.

Assistant Principal Seth Lambert had warned the two that aiming for a tie was impossible.
"But we still wanted to try," Michelle said. "It ended up not working,"

As the two became close friends, they gave each other study sheets through their classes in APHS and at their SFCC courses.

"Michelle and Casey do a lot of stuff together," said Jan Newton, their pre-calculus and trigonometry teacher from last year. "I'm sure there was some teasing back and forth."

The two ribbed each other at every chance they got during an interview Wednesday afternoon.
"It's not like we're mean to each other or anything," Michelle said.

On their own, Michelle kept busy volunteering for the Red Cross while playing tennis and volleyball, while Casey does soccer, football and is becoming a professional ATV racer. Both also have part-time jobs.

After they head to UF, Michelle plans to study trauma and abnormal psychology. Casey, an amateur ATV racer, will study mechanical engineering since he said it would help him in a professional racing career.

Both of them are planning their speeches for their May 30 graduation, set for 7:30 p.m. at South Florida Community College.

Casey, however, is doing it on video.

What?

Turns out, Casey has an ATV race in Ava, Mo., the night of the graduation.

"It's just like NASCAR; you miss the race, you lose out on points," he said.

"The val and sal thing worked out great," Casey said. If he were the valedictorian, his mother would have forced him to attend his own graduation.

Michelle couldn't resist the friendly jab.

"Isn't he a punk?" she grinned.

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