2 students advance to state
By Melinda L. Lucas
Four Albany high students brought home seven medals and a team plaque from the Region II-2A Academic Meet in Denison, with two competitors advancing to the state meet.
Seniors Sarah Cotter and Susie Cormack both qualified for the state meet on May 6 in Austin in journalism events.
Cotter took second in Editorial Writing, and Cormack won third in News Writing to advance. The top three places in each event moved on to the state meet.
Cotter also placed sixth in News Writing, while senior Luke Ivy placed fourth in Editorial Writing to serve as the alternate. In addition, Ivy earned fifth place in Copy Editing and fourth place in Science.
Junior Mayson Garcia placed fifth in Headline Writing.
“As always, the journalism team is keeping us rolling,” UIL coordinator Rick Davis said.
The group earned enough points to take second place as a team.
“It was a successful trip for us,” Davis said. “We took 11 kids to compete and four of them ended up bringing home seven medals.”
Davis said that the four seniors in the group have earned a lot of medals and points for the school during their careers.
“We are losing some real competitors, but I am encouraged that there were three freshmen and two sophomores who advanced,” he said. “I’m optimistic about our future with the younger kids, who are showing a lot of interest.”
Albany students took first place in all of the five journalism events at district, as well as sweeping the top three places in three of the events – news writing, feature writing, and editorial writing.
Students qualified for the regional contest by earning one of the top three places in their events at the district meet or being members of a first place team at district.
Students competing for Albany at the regional meet but who did not place were Ty Everitt – New Writing and Feature Writing, Avery Everitt – Feature Writing, Susie Cormack – Feature Writing, Ashley Richards – Headline Writing, Jade Bean – Science, Landon Kreitler – Science, Jonathan Coody – Science, Sidney Russell – Spelling, and John Birkla, alternate Science.
The math team of Luke Ivy, Ty Everitt, Avery Everitt, and Landon Kreitler also competed.
Attending the meet as an alternate after placing fourth at the district meet was Michael Sadler – Current Issues and Events.
Traveling to Denison with the group were science teacher Andre Raymond, math teacher and district UIL coordinator Rick Davis, journalism teacher Donnie Lucas, and sponsors Jennifer Everitt and Jenny Scott.
