Double the accomplishment
12 sets of twins graduating from Washington Co. school
Canon-McMillan High School’s June 4 graduation ceremony will be double the fun for one group of seniors.
Among the 453 graduating students, there are 12 sets of twins.
That means twins account for 5.3% of the 2026 graduating class.
Nationwide, twins occur in about 3% of all births, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is the most (twins) we’ve ever had in my time at C-M,” said high school principal Brittany Taylor.
One senior, McKenna Fornof, who with her sister McKayla, make up one of the dozen sets of twins, said she was unaware of the number of twins in the class until administrators made her aware of the phenomenon.
“I honestly didn’t know there were 12 sets of twins. We definitely went to elementary school at Borland Manor with a few sets of twins, so we were aware of that, but had no idea there were so many,” said McKenna.
The twins include a mix of identical and fraternal twins, who are involved in a variety of academic and extracurricular activities, including school musicals, academic teams, golf, cross country, track, and baseball.
The bonds among the fraternal siblings aren’t any less tight than the ties identical siblings share, said Bailey Robbins-O’Connell and her brother, Quinton.
“We definitely are very close,” said Bailey. “We haven’t had any classes together in high school, but we do have a have a close bond.”
Over the years, there has been some twin confusion. The Werthman twins, Chase and Hunter, confessed that in eighth grade, they switched classes.
“We did it at end of the year, we wanted to see if our teachers noticed,” said Chase Werthman.
For some of the twins, the end of their high school education will mean they will be separated from each other for the first time in their lives.
Bailey Robbins-O’Connell is set to attend the University of Rochester in New York, where she plans to major in brain and cognitive sciences. Quinton plans to pursue sound editing, but hasn’t decided on where to attend school.
“Being apart from each other is something we’ve never experienced before, but we were talking about it the other day and we will call each other, we will text, we will make it the same as it’s been as much as we possibly can,” said Bailey.
Chase plans to attend Waynesburg University in the fall, while his identical twin brother, Hunter, is enrolled at Washington & Jefferson College.
Chase said he will miss his brother, but the two will enjoy some breathing room.
“I think it will be good because at some point we have to separate,” said Chase. “We’ve had a couple of classes together in high school, too, so this will be different. I’m honestly happy for us that we’re still going to colleges that are close to each other, but also going our own ways.”
The Fornof twins are set to attend Washington & Jefferson, where McKenna will major in nursing and McKayla will major in computer science.
“Being a twin is great. You have a built-in friend, and it’s a bond that not a lot of people get to share,” said McKenna.
Omar and Joel Zepeda Olvera haven’t decided what they will do after graduation.
“Both of us are unsure about our plans post-high school, but it will be different being separated,” said Omar.
Other schools around the country have had large numbers of twins in their graduating classes, including Upper St. Clair High School, where 16 sets of twins are set to graduate.
But according to Guinness World Records, the record for most multiples in the same class was set in 2017 at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., where 44 sets of twins and one set of triplets graduated.