Identical twins share co-valedictorian honor in Nevada

Twin sisters at Douglas High School near Reno, Nevada, have supported each other their whole lives.

This morning, Gabby and Maria Munoz Robles have something else to share -- they both graduated number one.

A double dose of high school excellence was on display as identical twin sisters Gabby and Maria shared the honor of co-valedictorian, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

"We always study together," Gabby said. "We do the same sports. We do the same extra-curricular activities."

The identical twins finished their senior year with an identical grade point average -- 4.54 -- putting them both at the top of their class.

"We were shooting to be co-valedictorians," Maria said. "It came just down to this last semester, and we tied so we knew that it was going to happen."

They say a combination of competitiveness and comradery helped them reach their goal.

"We usually split up our homework load sometimes," Maria said. "We cut it in half so she gets part of it and i get the other part of it."

With college on the horizon, the sisters made a vow to stick together, hoping to attend the University of Notre Dame. But their plan was almost derailed. Maria received her acceptance letter via email, Gabby did not -- at first, anyway.

"A few hours later I decided to check my email again and this time I checked all of my email and I found my likely letter from Notre Dame in my spam mail and then we celebrated," Gabby said.

But the school is not allowing them to live in the same dormitory. So for the first time in their lives, they will live apart.

"We first wanted to debate them on it , but then we realized they did have a point that we needed to be separated and each have our own separate group of friends...and try to like...grow up differently, be individuals," Maria said.

After college, both girls plan to attend graduate school and eventually, hope to conduct cancer and arthritis research -- together, of course.