Fourteen students placed at the UIL academic district meet, March 22 and 24, with three qualifying for the regional competition.
With nine awards, the Journalism team took first place. Junior Rachel Sloan won the Headline Writing competition and took fourth in Feature Writing.
“I was totally shocked,” junior Rachel Sloan said. “I didn’t think I even had a chance at winning so when I did I knew it was because I had practiced so hard with Ms. Lemons.”
Other individual awards for the Journalism team went to sophomore Bridget O’Malley who placed fourth in Editorial Writing, sophomore Kristina Jingling took fifth in News Writing and sixth in Feature Writing, junior Shelly Spencer snagged second in Editorial Writing and junior Stephanie Hofmann was fifth in Editorial Writing. Junior Gloriana Stolle placed sixth in News Writing and junior Nick Hage finished sixth in Headline Writing.
“Placing fourth at district was absolutely amazing,” O’Malley said. “Especially because it was my second time ever competing and I thoroughly convinced myself that I wasn’t going to place at all.”
In the other writing events, junior Stephanie Smith took fourth place for Literary Criticism, junior Maria Carrion-Cardozo placed third in Ready Writing and senior Anuja Mohapatra placed fourth in Ready Writing. Other individual awards included senior Anthony Martillotti placing fourth in Social Studies and fifth in Current Events, and senior Colin Walker placing fourth in both Number Sense and Mathematics.
“I’m really nervous because I’ll be competing against a lot more people [at regionals],” said Carrion-Cardozo. “I’m reading up and studying as much as I can.”
The speech and debate contests were held two days earlier at Dripping Springs High School, March 22.
Sloan placed fourth in Prose Interpretation, freshman Rachel Sanders took fourth in Poetry Interpretation, and senior Taylor Harrison placed sixth in Persuasive Speaking.
“I was just really excited that I could advance and go to regionals,” said Sanders, who is going as an alternate. “I didn’t really think that being a freshman made a difference.”
