Accolades and Awards

ATHLETICS

Swim Wins Second State Title

For the second year in a row, the varsity boys swim team has won the GISA AAA Swim State Championship. The team’s win closely mirrored last year’s victory, edging out 2nd place Augusta Prep by 8.5 points - a wider margin than last year’s three points - and a 13.5 point lead over thirdplace finisher, Heritage. “It was a nice cap to our senior year,” said Gavin Marshall. “It was hard to get up some mornings and practice in 20° weather. I am proud of the determination of my teammates.”

Middle School Soccer Wins 2 nd GISA Invitational

The middle school boys soccer team won their second consecutive GISA Invitational tournament this spring, the end-of-season tournament challenging the best middle school soccer teams in the GISA conference.

Varsity Girls Earn 1 st State Title

Congratulations to the Lady Cougars and Coach Paul Belcher for becoming the 2019 GISA AAA state basketball champions. The girls stayed strong through the state tournament despite lacking some key players due to injuries. The championship game was a rematch of last year’s final, our Lady Cougars against returning champions Pinewood Christian Lady Patriots. This time, though, Holy Spirit Prep claimed the state championship title with a final score of 47-38. Annaleena Hansen and Jonnise Poole were both selected as GISA AAA All-Star players.

ACADEMICS

Chess Defends State Title for Third Year

The Upper School chess team earned their 3rd consecutive team state title at the GISA State Chess Tournament, hosted at Marist School this spring. Undefeated in the tournament, 12th -grader Mason Anker also took 1st place in individual competition; 12th -grader and Head Boy Conner McKittrick took 3rd in the individual competition.

Mathletes Win Inaugural Competition

Lower School mathletes competed in and won their first tournament this spring, an event hosted by Perennial Math and hosted at Shiloh Middle School in Snellville. Third and sixth-grade teams won 1st place! Luke Sacco (3rd grade), Olivia Casal (5th grade), Dylan Craig (6th grade), and Tristen Lewis (6th grade) all won 1st place in individual competitions. The competitive student team began as a Cougar Hour club called Mathletes focused on math competition.

ARTS

Literary Students Take 1st at State

Congratulations to 11th-grader Sophia John and 10th -grader Samantha Gregory, who placed 1 st in their competitions at the GISA State Literary Competition this spring. A multi-year Holy Spirit Prep spelling bee champion, Sophia outscored her opponents in Spelling. She spelled 72 out of 125 words correctly, surpassing nd place by 13 words. Samantha took 1 st in Piano for the second year in a row. “I’m hoping to get 1st all four years of high school,” Samantha said.

The wins come after additional successes at the region GISA Literary competition hosted at Holy Spirit Prep earlier in the spring, where senior Megan Turpin took 1st in Solo; 11th -grader William Arnold won the Argumentative Essay category, and Sophia and Samantha took 1st in Spelling and Piano.

Art Students Win Dogwood Throwdown

Upper School artists took 1st place at the 2019 Dogwood Festival’s Art Throwdown, an annual contest pitting Atlanta’s high school artists against each other in a series of live art challenges. The win marks their second 1st-place finish, and five consecutive years of 1st and 2nd place finishes.

ins include: 1st place sculpture (Virginia Lehmann, 10th grade); 1st place photo (Kaley Turpin, 10th grade); 1st place 30-minute expanded portrait (Samantha Gregory, 10th grade); 1st place Tiktok video (Ben Cumbie and Dani Ruiz, 10h grade); 2 nd place Tiktok video (Allie Bertany, 10th grade and Sophia Lindholm, 9 th grade); and 2nd place photo (Gilberto Lajara, 10th grade).