LFHS/LFU Take UIL Academics District Title

by Ronnie Zamora/LFCISD

For the second straight year, Los Fresnos High School and Los Fresnos United students captured the UIL Academics District 32-6A championship Saturday in Brownsville.

LFHS/LFU defended its title by outscoring the competition with students who placed between first and sixth place contributing to the team trophy.

Twenty-one students from LFHS/LFU qualified for  the Region IV UIL Academics Spring Meet to be held at The University of Texas at San Antonio April 13.

UIL Academics is composed of six speaking events and 16 non-speaking events.

Varsity students who placed in the top three of their respective divisions qualified for the regional meet. Members of first place teams also advance.

Other qualifiers include:

• Jose Carlos, 3rd in Current Issues and Special Events
• Caroline de La Garza, 1st, Copy Editing, and 1st, Headline Writing
• Caitlin Cavazos, 2nd, Copy Editing
• Daniela Garcia, 3rd, Copy Editing
• Karina de La Garza, 1st, Editorial Writing and 3rd, Headline Writing
• Brianna Martinez, 1st, Feature Writing and 1st, News Writing
• Miguel Hernandez, 2nd, Headline Writing and 3rd, News Writing
• Mia Rodriguez, 2nd, Informative Speaking
• Elijah Canning, 3rd, Informative Speaking
• Kiara Garcia, 1st, Literary Criticism
• Annalisa Solis, 2nd, Literary Criticism
• Isela Escobedo, 4th, Literary Criticism
• Kiara Jimenez, 6th, Literary Criticism
• Noe Leon, 1st, Mathematics
• Victoria Chaparro, 2nd, Persuasive Speaking
• Amanda Garcia, 2nd, Poetry Interpretation
• Zoe Arriaga, 3rd, Social Studies
• Alexis Salazar, 1st, Spelling and Vocabulary
• Aly Guerra, 3rd, Spelling and Vocabulary
• Denise Gracia, 3rd, Spelling and Vocabulary
• Athena Moore, 5th, Spelling and Vocabulary

Teams advancing to the Regional Competition include the Spelling and Vocabulary Team coached by Edith Garza and the Literary Criticism Team coached by Mark Castillo. The Journalism team, coached by Rocio Leal, obtained Top Journalism Team Award.

While students earning awards for fourth, fifth and sixth place do not advance to region individually, the school sweepstakes trophy would not have been earned without their valuable contribution. Those students include:

• Isabela Martinez, 6th, Calculator Applications
• Cody Cravy, 6th, Computer Applications
• Ramon Curzio, 6th, Lincoln Douglas Debate
• Chancellor Wyatt, 4th, Mathematics
• Jose Carlos, 5th, Number Sense
• Tony Espinoza, 6th, Persuasive Speaking
• Adathamy Villarreal, 6th, Poetry Interpretation
• Axel Rosas, 6th, Prose Interpretation
• Aeverie Rayner, 6th, Ready Writing
• Elijah Canning and Amanda Garcia, 6th, Cross-Examination Debate

Members of the 2nd place Mathematics Team include Noe Leon, Chancellor Wyatt, Alexandra Montes, and Connor Sponsler
Members of the 2nd place Team Number Sense include Jose Carlos, Alexandra Montes, Connor Sponsler, and Daniela Martinez.

Members of the 2nd place Science team include Juan Pablo Alvarado, Siegfried Gawenda, Alexandra Montes, Brendan Perez, Connor Sponsler, and Chancellor Wyatt.

Members of the 3rd place Computer Science team include Juan Ponce, Carlos Diaz, Christian Herrod, and Jorge Suarez.

Regional qualifiers who finish in the top three positions in their events qualify to advance to the UIL Academic State Meet May 2-4 at The University of Texas at Austin.