UIL Academic Team sweeps District

Rachel Calabuig | Reporter

The weeks and months leading up to the UIL District competition were filled with preparation and practices in order for the UIL Academics Team could do their very best.

The District UIL Academics competition was held at the school from Friday, March 24 to Saturday, March 25, where the UIL Academics Team won District Champion and earned the Sweepstakes plaque.

“I was really proud of them, especially as the day went on and they won more and more [events],” Journalism teacher Kari Riemer said. “I think this is one of our best ever showings at District. I’m glad their hard work paid off.”

What Rieer refers to is the amount of time and effort competitors spent preparing for their events.

“To prepare, I had to learn the rules of the event, and then I had to write and prepare two cases on the pro and the con,” junior Ava Lambert said. “That was probably the hardest part because finding evidence for the cases takes a while [when preparing for the Lincoln-Douglas debate].”

The preparation and studying paid off based on the results which showed that team beat the runner-up, Georgetown High School, by more than double the points.

“This is the third year in a row we have won the 5A District Championship

(there was no district meet in 2020),” UIL Coordinator and debate coach Kirsten Nash said in an email to teachers. “As a team, our students captured seven Team and 14 Individual District Championship titles.”

The seven teams who earned Championship titles include Journalism coached by Riemer, Speech coached by Nash, Aly Mithani and Mike Fisher, Computer Science coached by Terri Thompson, Current Issues and Events coached by Nash and Mithani, Literary Criticism coached by Jordan Smith, Number Sense coached by T.J. Johnson, and Science coached by Tim Bayliss.

“All the science teachers I’ve had over the last couple of years have been a reason for my success this year,” senior Rudolf Bendixen said. “But Mr. Bayliss has been an especially strong influence, not only because of his skills as a Biology teacher, but because of his dedication to the team as our coach.”

Junior Kate Hayes earned the most points out of all the competitors who earned points in multiple events. In fact, she even earned four District Championship titles.

“I didn’t believe it,” Hayes said. “I quickly realized [that] as I kept placing [in my events] as they announced [the results]. I got a great deal of satisfaction [out of that].”