UIL winners at Regionals

Olney High School students competed in the District 9-2A Academic UIL meet Wednesday, April 3, and Monday, April 8, at Archer City. Once again, OHS brought home the district championship, amassing 762 total points out of 1,647 points awarded. Archer City followed in second with 311, followed by Nocona with 221, Seymour with 192, Windthorst with 88 and Petrolia with 73. Thirty OHS students advanced either as an individual (top three) or as a team and will compete at the regional competition at Grayson College in Denison April 26-27.

The accounting team, coached by Sherry Livingston, won first, including Jacob Hernandez, Allie Barrington, Lindsy Piedra and Kaitlyn Ward. Barrington won first, Piedra was second and Hernandez was fourth. The team qualified for regionals.

The Calculator Applications team won first, including Angel Alvarado, Aidyn Bitner, Sophie Roach and Jeffry Flores. The team, coached by Courtney Hantz, swept the top six to qualify for regionals. Alvarado was first, Flores was second, Roach was third, Bitner was fourth, Caleb Johnson was fifth and Braelyn Casteel was sixth.

In computer science, coached by Sabrina Laurent, the team won first and also swept the top six places to qualify for regionals. Bitner was first, Alvarado was second, Johnson was third, Nate Elmore was fourth, Brason Brock was fifth, and Rodolfo Arce was sixth.

The Current Issues and Events team, coached by Livingston, won third. Team members include Ellie Hinson, second; Moira Watkins, third; Lexi Paul and Ben Norris. Hinson and Watkins qualified as individuals for regionals in the event.

Journalism, coached by Mindi Kimbro, won second overall, with multiple students competing. In Editorial Writing, Darla Castillo was second to qualify for regionals. Braelyn Casteel was fourth and Ben Norris was fifth. In feature writing, Lauren Pham was second to earn a spot at regionals. Headline writing results included fifth place for Zoey Hamby and sixth for Cheyenne Slattery. In News Writing, Pham placed second to qualify for regionals and Ryan Conder was fourth.

In speaking events, the overall speech team was first with 140 total points. Informative Speaking was coached by Lani Caffey, and participants swept the top three and all regional qualifying places. Joselyn Marquez was first, Morgan Simmons was second, and Ava Stewart was third.

Sawyer Edgington advanced to regionals in Lincoln Douglas Debate, coached by Caffey. He placed first at district. Caffey also coached Edgington in Persuasive Speaking, where he placed first to move on to regionals. Mallory Jeske was third in Poetry Interpretation, coached by KathyHarper. She will advance to regionals. Harper also coached the Prose Interpretation team where Maddox Johnson placed first and Allie Barrington was second. Both qualified for regionals The Literary Criticism team, coached by Harper, was the second place team, including Peyton Valdez, Roach, Flores, and Seth Nash. The team advances to regionals as a wildcard. Individually, Valdez was second, Roach was third, and Nash was sixth.

Hantz also coached the Mathematics team, which placed first. Advancing team members are Alvarado, Bitner, Adrian Gonzalez and Brock. Alvardo won first, Bitner was second, Gonzalez was third, Brock was fourth, Valdez was fifth and Ellie Hinson was sixth to complete the clean sweep.

Number Sense team members Bitner, Roach, Alvarado and Valdez placed first overall. Coached by Dr. Greg Roach, the team advanced to regionals. Roach was first, Alvarado was second, Valdez was third, Bitner was fourth and Colby Johnson was sixth.

The Ready Writing team, coached by Harper, consisted of Simmons, JoJo Acuna and Allison House. All three qualified for regionals, with Simmons winning first, Acuna placing second and House placing third.

In Science, coached by Laurent, the first place team of Valdez, Alvarado, Bitner and Colby Johnson qualified for regionals. Valdez was first place and Bitner was second. Valdez also earned the top score for biology and tied for physics top score. Alvarado and Arce also tied for physics top score.

For social studies, coached by Livingston, the team of House, Hernandez, Ben Baran and Hayden Robinson won first and advanced to regionals. Baran was fourth and Robinson was fifth.

The Spelling team, including Ben Norris, Brianna Galindo, Emily Marquez, and Bladimir Ramirez, was second overall. They are coached by Harper. Norris was fourth as an individual and Galindo was sixth.