SSHS teams dominate at district UIL competition

Sulphur Springs High School students dominated at UIL District 15-4A Academic Meet, scoring 823 points overall to clinch the sweepstakes win. The second place team, Paris High School, scored 268 points.

SSHS team members competed Friday, April 5 and Wednesday, April 10. Collectively, they earned 63 individual medals, five first place teams and three second place teams, as well as the district journalism and speech champions. A total of 33 students will advance to regional competition, along with six alternates.

The copy editing team of Jolene Reed, Abigail Bautista and Payton Hooks placed first, second and third, respectively. All three qualified to advance to the regional competition. The team is coached by Gail Herman and Madison Millsap.

The news writing team of Reed, Payton Hooks and Dylan McKinney placed first, second and third, respectively. All three qualified to advance to the regional competition. Herman and Millsap are the team coaches.

In feature writing, Jolene Reed and Payton Hooks placed first and second, respectively, qualifying to advance to the regional competition. Kolbie Moughon placed sixth. Herman and Millsap are the team coaches.

Asia Chen, Anthony Small and Jolene Reed swept the editorial writing competition, placing first, second and third, respectively, and advancing to the regional competition. Herman and Millsap are the team coaches.

Abigail Bautista, Betzy Chacon and Jolene Reed shut out their competitors in headline writing, with all three team members advancing to regional competition. Herman and Millsap are the team coaches.

The SSHS journalism team also placed first at district competition.– 1st Place Team (Millsap and Herman – Coaches) — Regional qualifier The members of coach Gail Herman’s ready writing team performed well, with Anthony Small placing second and Alan Tellez placing third. Alexis Villarino was named alternate.

Holden Moss earned first place in accounting and qualified to advance to the regional competition. Jamie VanWinkle serves as coach.

All four members of coach Gerald Grafton’s calculator applications team placed individually at district. Asia Chen took the top slot, with Barrett Thesing in third, Katlyn Noe in fifth and Briana Macedo coming in sixth. Chen and Thesing advance to the regional competition. The team also qualified for the regional competition.

Makieya Boren earned first place and was named a regional qualifier in the computer applications competition. Jill Crump serves as coach.

In the current issues and events competition, James “Mac” McCoy, Crawford Johnson, Abigail Bautista, Kolbie Moughon and Craig Draper swept the top five places. McCoy, Johnson and Bautista advanced to the regional competition, and Moughon was named alternate. The team also earned first place collectively and qualified for the regional competition. Madison Millsap coaches the team.

Gail Herman’s literary criticism team of Alexis Villarino, Kami White, Alan Tellez, Betzy Chacon and Dylan McKinney clinched the top four spots, as well as sixth place, respectively. Villarino, White and Tellez advance to regionals, with Chacon named alternate. The team took first place, guaranteeing them a spot at regionals.

Asia Chen placed second, while Anthony Small placed fifth individually in the mathematics competition. The team of Chen, Small, Villarino and White won second place and will advance to regionals.

Katlyn Noe, from Grafton’s number sense team, placed fourth at district and was named alternate for the regional competition.

Asia Chen and Jessie Li individually placed fourth and sixth in the district science competition. The team, including Chen, Li, Carolina Murillo-Barcenas and Reese Offut, placed second at district and qualified to advance to regionals.

In social studies, the team of Grayson Wall, Davin Ly, Julia Garcia-Ricker, Crawford Johnson, Conner Curtis and Cameron Davis shut out all others in individual competition. Wall, Ly, Garcia-Ricker and Johnson advanced to regionals, where Johnson will serve as alternate. The team took first place and will advance to regionals as well. Their coach is Madison Millsap.

Gail Herman’s spelling and vocabulary team of Abigail Bautista, Kami White, Kale Burgin, Celeste Hernandez, Laney Bankston and Camila Hidalgo swept the individual Competition. The team of Bautista, White, Burgin and Hernandez clinched first place, earning them a spot at regional competition. Hernandez will serve as alternate.

The speech team, coached by Trevor King, Jamie Van-Winkle and Lesha Woodard, advanced.

The prose team of Tally Brown, Aiden Woodard and Aspen Mayhew also advanced. The team members swept first, second and third places, respectively. Lesha Woddard is their coach.

Woodard’s poetry team advanced, with members Emma Boatman, Addison Bradley and Nathan Bile placing first, second and third, respectively. They will compete at regionals.

Carolina Murillo-Barcenas won second place in informative speaking and will move on to regionals. Her coach is Trevor King, who also coaches Jordan VanWinkle and Reese Offut. They won first and second, respectively, at district and will move on to regionals.

Previous events that contributed to SSISD’s totals included the cross-examination debate team of Offutt and Murillo, who earned second place as a team at district and will advance to state competition next month in Austin; and the one-act play cast and crew, who won at their district competition and will advance to bi-district competition.

Winners of the top three places in each category at the Region 2 UIL Academics competition, to be held at Texas A&M University — Commerce on Friday, April 26, will advance to the UIL State Academics competition at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday, May 13.

The SSHS speech team earned a team score of 129, and 10 points. Texarkana Pleasant Grove in second place with a team score of 72, with 5 points. Paris North Lamar in third place with a team score of 64, with 0 points. In fourth place was Paris with a team score of 36, with 0 points. Texarkana Liberty-Eylau landed in fifth place with a score of 22, with 0 points.

Sulphur Springs earned 823 total points for first place overall at district competition. Paris, the second place competitor, earned 268 points. Third place winner Texarkana Pleasant Grove earned a total of 243 points. Paris North Lamar earned 178 points and took fourth place. Texarkana Liberty-Eylau collected 106 points for fifth place, and Pittsburg earned 17 points to earn sixth place.

The SSISD journalism team earned first place with a team score of 179 and 10 points. Texarkana ISD Liberty- Eylau placed second with a team score of 46 and five points. Third place went to Texarkana Pleasant Grove ISD with a team score of 42, and fourth place went to Paris ISD with a team score of eight.