Senior Cortlyn Dees and sophomore Erin Westermann competed in the State UIL Academic Meet in Austin May 20. Westermann competed in feature writing, and Dees competed in editorial writing, placed first in 4A and won Tops in Texas for news writing.

In UIL journalism, the top three writers from the district level advance to regionals. Then, the top three writers from the regional level compete in the state competition. Tops in Texas writers are chosen from among the five first place winners for each conference.

“Winning first place at state as a senior was a huge milestone that I’m so proud to have accomplished,” Dees said. “To think that my paper was chosen as the best in the state is more than I could have ever asked for and extremely humbling.”

Students competing in the news writing competition have 45 minutes to compose a news story comprised of information from a prompt set in the fictional city of Leaguetown, Texas.

“After I read through the prompt, I started to write my paper and I was so jittery and nervous that I couldn’t spell even simple words correctly,” Dees said. “I didn’t know this until after I finished my competition, but right at the same I was feeling really nervous inside the competition room, my journalism teacher and UIL coach Laura Smith was sitting outside praying that my nerves would be calmed. I really believe God was able to calm my nerves down and help me write probably the best news story I’ve ever written in a UIL competition.”

Dees said after her competition, Smith told her that she had placed, but Dees did not know what rank she placed.

“I knew I had placed in the top six, but I honestly believed that I was going to get a sixth place medal,” Dees said. “When we were at the awards ceremony, they started calling out the names of the winners, starting with sixth place. When I didn’t hear my name called at each placing, I almost felt like, ‘Well, maybe I didn’t even place in news.’”

Dees said when she heard the second place winner’s name announced, she came undone because she realized she placed first.

“I held back tears of joy and went up to get my beautiful gold medal,” Dees said. “After I won first place, they had all the first place winners stay on stage for Tops in Texas, which is the first place paper out of the entire state. When UIL journalism director Jeanne Acton announced I was Tops in Texas, I think my hand flew over my mouth because I was seriously in shock.”

The Canyon High School state UIL team for Canyon consisted of Dees, Westermann, and freshman Callie Boren, who was an alternate for headline writing.

“The other girls were so supportive and happy for me,” Dees said. “For them to be underclassmen and already be attending the state competition is a huge accomplishment. I can’t wait to see the gold medals they will bring home to Canyon one day.”

Westermann said that although she didn’t place at the meet, she was proud of the paper she wrote at state.

“Finding out that I didn’t place was kind of a bummer after how hard I had worked, but there was not a thing that I would have changed about my paper,” Westermann said. “It did help to be able to turn around and have one of my teammates place and place so well. It far outweighed my disappointment. The noise that left my mouth when I heard she was announced Tops in Texas was verging on inhuman.”

Westermann will continue journalism as editor-in-chief of the 2015 yearbook. Dees will attend University of Arkansas in the fall and will major in broadcast journalism.

“Journalism is absolutely my passion,” Dees said. “It gives me confidence going into college knowing I could do this. I’m so thankful for everything Mrs. Smith has taught me and the people who have helped me get to where I am today. But no matter how far I go in journalism, I will always be a member of the Leaguetown press.”