Morgan Clark Wins State; LFHS Lit Crit Team Takes Second

Los Fresnos High School senior Morgan Clark was crowned individual state champion at Texas UIL Academics Meet Tuesday at The University of Texas at Austin.

Clark placed first among the 16 participants at the state meet.

The LFHS Literary Criticism team finished second in the team competition by four points in its third straight trip to the state meet. The team of Clark, Brianna Garcia, Emilie Kitterman and Whitney Ortiz took first place at the UIL Region IV Academics Meet in April.

Garcia won the regional championship medal for the second straight year. Clark finished second and Kitterman fourth to receive medals as well.
“It was nerve-wracking to the end,” said UIL Coordinator Jan Lester. “This group will have a bond that will last forever.”

The LFHS “Lit Critters” won the 2014 state championship, with Garcia, Ortiz, Kitterman and Victoria Cavazos, who graduated in 2014. In 2013, LFHS finished fourth in state, and Garcia was a member of that team as a sophomore.

Repeating as state champs is expected to be a challenge.

The Literary Criticism event is a marathon multiple-choice and essay test comprised of in-depth Literary History, trivia and questions from an intimidating reading list.

The four LFHS scholars discussed literature on a whole into the literary world memorizing terms, internalizing literacy movements and philosophical concepts. A typical question bantered about in practice might be “Is that a symploce, anadiplosis, or epanalepsis?

Also participating at the state meet was Kendall House, who was one of 12 finalists competing in the Barbara Jordan essay competition Wednesday.