Placing in the top three at the district UIL academic meet on March 24 and 27, 12 students are advancing to region. Overall the school scored 395 points which includes all academic events and one-act play results.
“It was probably one of the highest totals I’ve ever seen during my long UIL career,” UIL coordinator Leslie Graham said. “We did pretty well point-wise.”
The regional meet will take place on April 21-22 at Grayson College in Denison. Advancing to the regional meet are Kelsey Aultman, Fallon Blair, Ty Cantrell, Louren Conner, Luke Deerinwater, Jaycie Holley, Ira Hotsuliak, Kadence Huffman, Kori Keeter, Emily Shephard, Candace Taggart, Rebecca Taggart
“Region is split into two days,” Graham said. “All journalism and speech events will be hosted on Friday; computer applications will take place on Saturday.”
Blair, a senior, said he is excited for region but also worried because it was tough to get out of it last year and he said he hopes he will still do well.
“I’m going to practice by doing headline tests and going over headline rules to make sure I’m in the right mindset,” Blair said. “I’m excited for the overall trip to region because it is overnight and on the trip we usually go somewhere to have fun to get our minds off anxiety before competition.”
Shephard, also a senior, said since it is her last year, she feels like she has a lot of pressure on her to do well.

“I’m going to start to practice more persuasive speaking because I want to advance even further in something I have never done before,” Shephard said.
Conner, a junior, has competed at district since her freshman year.
“I was very nervous going in to the competition because this was a strong group of kids that I was competing against but I feel as though I did very well and I am very proud of my score,” Conner said. “I started preparing for region by looking at my district paper and seeing what I can fix. I am very excited for region because I feel I have a good chance to advance.”