The UIL academic team took the district championship after the third portion of contests ended on March 26. Seminole scored over 600 points.
The one-act play scored 54 points on March 20 as one of the three advancing plays with all-star cast which included best performers senior Javen Gutierrez and Owen Adam. Senior Leah Martin was also named all-star cast. Junior Nehemiah McCoy, was named as honorable mention cast.
Technical awards, which do not earn points, went to junior Diana Reimer for outstanding tech. Outstanding tech crew went to sophomores Elijah Lapusan, Cooper Sales, junior Paityn Espinoza, Reimer and junior Kaitelynn Alonzo.
In individual events, first through third places advance to regionals as well as the top four members of a first place team event.
The speech team took first overall on March 26, earning 171 points. The team championship was a combination of six events.
In informative speaking, senior Rachel Rempel was first, sophomore Cooper Sales was second, and senior Ethan Salazar was third.
In persuasive speaking, junior Joey Penner was second, sophomore Brayden Prieto was third, and sophomore Elijah Lapusan was fourth.
In poetry interpretation, senior Jenna Sales was first, McCoy was second, and junior Reese Dickson was fourth.
In prose interpretation, Adam took first, Gutierrez was second, and junior Kobe Cabello took third.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Prieto took sixth.
Cross-examination debate was also part of team speech, even though it competed earlier in the semester. The team of sophomores Cooper Sales and Anaiah Beydoun took fourth, and the team of Salazar and Lapusan took fifth.
The remainder of district events took place on March 26.
In accounting, senior Isaac Neudorf was third, while senior Nathen Camacho took fifth.
The calculator applications team of senior Jack Chen, senior Peyton Casey, senior Geydis Cuesta Rodriguez and sophomore Victoria Baros took first overall and advanced to region with Chen first individually and Casey in second.
In computer science, the team of Rempel, Sales, junior Kamryn LeBlanc and sophomore Jaxon Hand took second overall with Rempel fifth individually.
In current issues and events, the team of Beydoun, Salazar, Sales and Goodwin took first overall with Beydoun in first individually followed by Salazar in third and Sales in sixth.
In literary criticism, junior Serena Wiebe was second.
In mathematics, the team of Chen, senior Kytzia Hermosillo Mendoza, junior Eva Thiessen and senior Olivia Hicks took first overall. Individually, Chen was first, Hermosillo Mendoza was second, Thiessen was third, Hicks was fourth, and senior Brett Boyles was fifth.
In number sense, the team of Chen, Thiessen, sophomore Sophie Guenther and Boyles took first overall. Individually, Chen was first, Thiessen was second, Guenther was third, and Boyles was sixth.
In science, the team of Rempel, Cuesta Rodriguez, Sales and Thiessen took second overall. Individual places went to Rempel in second and Cuesta Rodriguez in fourth. Rempel was the second place scorer on the biology portion of the test.
In spelling and vocabulary, the team of freshman Carolina Harms, junior Mia Cowan, sophomore Drason Connally and sophomore C.J. Mendoza took second. Individually, Harms was fourth.
The journalism team took the district championship with 140 points over five events.
In copyediting, sophomore Susana Payan-Quintana was second, Beydoun was third and junior Melissa Gutierrez Tarango was sixth.
In editorial writing, sophomore Mattie Hice was third, Cowan was fifth and Gutierrez Tarango took sixth.
In feature writing, Gutierrez Tarango was first, Hice was fourth and Payan-Quintana was sixth.
In headline writing, Hice was first and Cowan was third.
In news writing, Payan-Quintana was first, Gutierrez Tarango was second and Beydoun took fifth.
One-act play will compete in bi-district in Seminole on April 2, while all the other events will compete at regionals at Texas Tech University on April 24 and 25.
