Azle UIL Academics competed in the first meet this semester on January 12 at TCC Northwest Campus. This is the first time all the academic teams were able to compete in one place together. The participants competing were Journalism, Math and Science, ELA, Speech and Debate, and Social Studies.

The following Journalism students brought home awards: junior Sam Weiss won 3rd in copy editing and 2nd in editorial in 11th and 12th division; junior Cecilia Clark won 6th in editorial, 11th and 12th division; senior Davin Hill placed 3rd in headline writing, 11th and 12th division; sophomore Mariah Hanna won 3rd in news and 4th in editorial in the 9th-10th division; and freshman Erika Clayton won 5th in headline writing in the 9th and 10th division.

“My team and I bonded while waiting for our events by playing games and cheering for each other and I even placed my first meet,” Clayton said.

The math and science team also did exceptionally well. Freshmen Alyssa Quick and Corey Hevel placed 4th and 5th respectively in Number Sense 9th and 10th-grade division; juniors Jenna Conner and Annie Cole placed 4th and 5th respectively in Calculator in the 11th and 12th-grade division while Quick and sophomore Catherine DeGeorge placed 4th and 6th respectively in number sense for the 9th/10th-grade division. Azle received 2nd place Calculator team.

Every year Cole has placed in Math and Science and made it regionals along with others from different UIL groups.

“I think I probably will make it to regionals considering last year,” Cole said.

This was the first meet of the year for the ELA teams with seniors Taylor Bresnahan and Lolo Maze taking 1st and 6th place respectively in the 11th and 12th division. Freshman Alyssa Moen placed 5th in Spelling and Vocabulary; this was her first ever UIL meet.

“It was really good, there was a lot of students from other schools, so it’s a good opportunity to meet people from other places and get to know other people and the teams,” Cole said.  

Unfortunately, no one from the Social Studies or Speech and Debate teams placed at this meet, but all the teams are hard at work practicing and preparing for the March 23 District Meet.