In preparation for District UIL on March 24 and 25 at Buffalo High School, UIL student debaters, speakers and writers will attend an invitational meet in Maybank for their last practice competition.
UIL students in all academic areas competed at the Crandall High School (UIL Set B) invitational last weekend earning second place as a school. Students also attended the Palestine meet (UIL Set A) in February placing second as a school.
“I’m happy to see these students having so many practices and so much support from their academic coaches and our district,” Academic Coordinator Kathie Maciel said. “This was our first time to attend the Crandall meet, and the students did great.”
The journalism team placed first at the meet. In feature writing, senior Bethany George placed first, senior Callie Morgan placed sixth; in news writing, Morgan placed second and George placed third; in editorial writing, George placed first, Morgan placed second, and junior Denise Hanson placed fifth; and in headline writing, sophomore Paisley Robinson placed second, and junior Antonio Jauregui placed third.
“Competing in the UIL Journalism events for the past four years has truly been so amazing,” Morgan said. “It gives an opportunity for creative and critical thinking students to shine, and I enjoy writing different types of unique stories. Even though I am sadly a senior this year, I hope that the next generation of students find joy and fun in journalism like I did my freshman year.”
In STEM, the science team placed third, including junior Noah Hoskins, senior Mason Edwards, junior Jack Bean, and junior Kaden McCrory; the number sense team placed third, including Bean, sophomore Jay Patel, and Hoskins; and the computer science team placed second, including junior Anderson Cruce, junior Bryanna Willis, junior Daniel Bonner, and senior Haysten Kent.
“All of these events are really based on individual students putting in a tremendous amount of outside work to be successful,” teacher Chris Owen said. “I have had more students interested in these events this year than any of the past years. This means our students want to be successful and represent our school. FHS has a long tradition of success in UIL academics. I am excited to help these students keep the tradition alive.”
In the other events, the literary criticism team placed first, including junior Devin McNeil, junior Skylar Cook, and freshman Zyah Salas; McNeil placed second and Cook placed fifth. The spelling team placed second, including Cruce, Robinson, and sophomore Isaiah Chavez; Cruce was second and Robinson fifth. George placed sixth in ready writing. Freshman Kenna Coufal place 5th in Novice LD Debate.
“This is my first year sponsoring Spelling,” teacher Gaylynn Swann said. “I was lucky enough to inherit great students who are self-motivated and good at spelling. Most of them were on the Spelling team last year, and we’ve been very fortunate that the new students are also very capable.”
The results from the Palestine invitational were: Science, 1st place team, Hoskins 1st, freshman Jett Jeffress 4th, freshman Lane King 5th; Current Events, Evans 1st, sophomore Aiden Hart 6th; Social Studies, Evans 1st; Spelling, 1st place team, Robinson 1st, sophomore Solomon Growden 3rd, Chavez 4th; Mathematics, 1st place team, Hoskins 1st, junior Gage Wendt 2nd; Number Sense, 1st place team, Hoskins 1st, freshman Hudson Wendt 3rd, Chavez 5th; Poetry, sophomore Mariela Espinoza 3rd; Informative Speaking, senior Mason Copeland 1st; Persuasive Speaking, junior Evelyn Fultz 1st, sophomore Owen Lane 2nd, senior Laiken Carlson 4th; Journalism 2nd place team; Copy Editing, junior Adlyn Peterson 3rd, junior Jhanvi Patel 6th; News Writing, junior Denise Hanson 5th; Feature Writing, Robinson 2nd, Hanson 4th, Patel, 5th; Editorial, Peterson 2nd, Patel 4th; Headline, Peterson 1st.
“I am so proud of my current events team,” teacher Katie Wade said. “They have to read and watch a lot of news on their own time. We currently have a fierce competition to make the District team. Our goal is always to win District and place higher at Regionals than the previous year.”
UIL Academics are coached by teachers Sally Whitaker (Ready Writing), Stacy Bachtel (Prose/Poetry), Renea Worley (Accounting), Kathie Maciel (Academic Coordinator, Literary Criticism, and Journalism events), Chris Owen (Mathematics, Number Sense, Calculator), Nicole Crawford (Informative and Persuasive Speaking), Gaylynn Swann (Spelling), Katie Wade (Current Issues), Elizabeth Collier (CX and LD debate), Cheryl Stone (Science and Computer Science), and Andrew Nutt (Social Studies).
