The UIL academic Journalism team and Speech and Debate team won eight awards at the Pflugerville tournament, Saturday, Nov. 5.

“I thought everyone did an excellent job,” UIL coordinator Pamela Bowmer said. “I would like there to be more participants in early events so more students at Rouse can experience competition in UIL academics.”

In Journalism events, Rachel Sloan won fourth place in Editorial Writing and Glorianna Stolle won third place in Editorial Writing. Shelly Spencer took fourth in News Writing and Kristina Jingling won fifth place in Feature Writing. Nick Hage placed sixth in Headline Writing.

“I was really surprised, because I never placed before and it was really unexpected,” Stolle said. “I was proud how everyone did overall. I will practice more and go in with a better mind set next meet.”

In speech events, Kimberly Perry took fourth place in Varsity Poetry Interpretation. Sloan took secondand Brandy Giordano took fifth in Novice Prose Performance.

“I was very nervous at first, but as the rounds kept going I gained confidence and feel great about my performance,” Giordano said. “I need to improve by knowing my piece better. I also need to improve in memorization.”