The UIL Academic teams competed in the district meet on March 29. Aledo students placed in 14 of these events, with 11 competitors advancing to the regional competition.

The computer science team placed first with 20 points, with Cole Newkirk in third, Jacob Newlund in second and William Reynolds in first.

The science team placed second with five points, competing in the biology event. In it, Luke Beall placed second.

The social studies team placed first against other districts with 10 points. In the event, Luke Beall placed in fifth, Morgan Furlow in fourth and Ty McClure in second.

Aledo’s speech team placed second against other districts with five points. In it, the Lincoln Douglas debate event had Rachael Taylor in sixth place, Cole Bohnen in second and Owen Denman in first. In persuasive speaking, Jake Flowers won fourth place, and in prose interpretation, Olivia Fowler competed and placed fifth.

Aledo’s two cross examination debate teams placed first and second, its first team with 20 points and the second 16.

In the one act play competition, Aledo placed first against other districts, tied with Rider and Granbury with 42 points.

In literary criticism, placing first with ten points above the second-placing district, Kaitlyn Anderson placed in sixth, Kelsey Sharp in third and Luke Beall in first.

In the spelling and vocabulary event, Nathan Buck placed in fourth, and in ready writing, fifth and first place belong to Jacob Deatherage and Joseph Hampton, respectively.

The journalism team — comprising editorial, feature, headline and news writing as well as copy editing — placed first with 10 points. Cassidy Cole competed in editorial writing and placed sixth. Lydia Wood placed second in editorial writing, fourth in copy editing, feature writing and news writing, as well as third in headline writing. James Ward placed sixth in headline writing, and second in both news and feature writing. And in first place for all five journalism events, the winner was Olivia Caggiano.

The regional competition will be held this Friday and Saturday at Saginaw High School.