In a school district renown for its rigor, nearly 50 Montgomery County seniors set the bar even higher this year by earning some of the most prestigious awards in the nation for academic prowess.

Three seniors, two from Silver Spring’s Montgomery Blair and one from Rockville’s Richard Montgomery, won the title of Presidential Scholar, awarded recently by the U.S. Department of Education to 139 students throughout the nation for exceptional performance on college entrance exams on top of further achievements.