After placing at the District 3-5A UIL Academic Meet, 17 students will compete at the Region 1 UIL Academic Meet April 13-14 at Texas Tech University. Students who place in the top three spots in their events will advance to the State UIL Academic Meet in May.

A total of 47 students competed in the 3-5A District UIL Academic Meet March 23 at West Texas A&M University. UIL academics gives students the opportunity to compete in academic, athletic and musical contests. Students are selected to participate in a various contests depending on their strengths.

Sophomore Claire Meyer competed in two categories, feature writing and headline writing, and advanced to region in headline writing.

“Writing feature is really fun, because you get to keep your rules you use in a news story while also adding an element of creative writing,” Meyer said. “Headlines are fun, too. It’s like a puzzle, because you’re trying to fit information within a certain number of spaces.”

Meyer is also a staff reporter for The Eagle’s Tale.

“I cover any stories that need to be covered,” Meyer said. “I help come up with headlines, because I am a headline writer for UIL. When you become a staffer, you are immediately considered for UIL.”

Feature and headline writing are under the journalism category in UIL. Other categories include speech and debate, mathematics, science and English. Sophomore Aleah Appel competes in poetry and spelling.

“For poetry, you chose different pieces, and you get to perform and interpret it how you want,” Appel said. “For spelling, you go into a room and listen to a guy call out words. I like it, because it’s not as stressful as a spelling bee. You can just write the words down instead of spelling them into a microphone.”

Depending on the category, students are given an allotted amount of time to complete tests, stories, essays or speeches.

“UIL is really great, because you can kind of compare yourself to everyone else in certain areas,” Meyer said. “You can look at yourself in comparison to other people, not just people in your newsroom. It’s also fun to do it in a more time-constrained environment.”

Meyer said the time constraints of competition can be stressful.

“It can be hectic sometimes trying to get from one event to the next while trying to eat in that time, too,” Meyer said.

Meyer placed fifth in feature writing and third in headlines at the district meet.  

“I always want to keep improving,” Meyer said. “When I was a freshman, I went all the way to regionals and stopped there. So this year, I want to continue to get better and succeed.”

Appel placed fourth in spelling and vocabulary and made it to finals in poetry.

“I’m surprised about spelling, actually,” Appel said. “During the test, I thought I was going to do really poorly, but afterwards, when I saw my results, I was actually impressed.”

Meyer and Appel will both advance to the regional meet.

“I think one of the best parts of UIL is being able to do it with your friends that have done these things with you,” Meyer said. “You all progress together. It’s fun seeing yourself grow, but also the people around you and watching us all become better as a collective whole.”

Accounting

5th-Arian Howard

6th-Morgan Howard

Calculator Applications

1st-Samantha Fernandez

2nd-Madison Hill

5th-Morgan Howard

Computer Science

3rd-Andrew Eason

Cross Examination Debate

6th-Teagen Barnett & Ryan Cox

Editorial Writing

1st-Jaren Tankersley

Feature Writing

1st-Macy McClish

2nd-Katelyn Spivey

5th-Claire Meyer

Headline Writing

2nd-Jolie Mullins

3rd-Claire Meyer

Informative Speaking

4th-Kaleigh Rodarte-Suto

Literary Criticism

5th-Victoria Bell

News Writing

2nd-Erin Sheffield

5th-Katelyn Spivey

Persuasive Speaking

5th-Teagen Barnett

Poetry Interpretation

3rd-Ryan Cox

5th-Victoria Bell

Prose Interpretation

2nd-Sara Ledesma

4th-Campbell Holt

Ready Writing

1st-Aryauna Thompson

2nd-Braden Lefevre

Spelling and Vocabulary

1st-Bret Ramirez

4th-Aleah Appel

Teams

Accounting – 2nd place

Calculator Applications – 1st place

Computer Science – 3rd place

Journalism – 2nd place

Spelling and Vocabulary – 1st place