After a first-place performance at the district meet last month, the UIL Academic Team traveled to Regionals in Brenham last weekend to try to make their way on to state.

“I was very nervous to compete at first,” Ally Smith said. “However, I got over it, tried my best, and ended up doing very well.”

Students will advance in both speaking and journalism events. Lilah Molina placed third in Poetry, and Ally Smith fourth. Evan Grisham placed third in Extemp, and Abby Smith placed fifth. Kendall Morales placed first in Feature Writing and second in Editorial. Jordan Jenkins placed fourth in News writing. The Journalism team placed second overall and the Speech team placed third overall.

“I was so proud of myself and what I accomplished,” Lilah Molina said. “I worked so hard for it.”

Molina, Morales and Grisham all earned their spots as State Qualifiers and will be traveling to Austin on May 23-25. Ally Smith will be a state alternate.

“I’m super excited about making it to state,” Kendall Morales said. “I’ve worked really hard for the past two years in journalism, and it’s a great feeling knowing that my hard work is paying off.”