Aledo competed in UIL at the district level with Azle, Brewer, Granbury, Rider and Wichita Falls High School last Saturday, with 17 of its students placing.

In the Current Issues and Events competition, junior Jacob Flowers placed third and senior Bud Green placed second.

In Spelling and Vocabulary, senior Kyla Stevens placed sixth.

“I chose to do spelling and vocabulary because I did really well in spelling bees as a kid, I even made it to the Scripps Area Spelling Bee twice, and qualified for the National Spelling bee in fifth grade,” Stevens said. “I wanted to be part of UIL this year, but I didn’t want to do math or science, and being on the spelling team was a great opportunity for me.” 

In Social Studies, senior Lance Williams placed fourth, junior Will Hendrix placed second and Bud Green placed first.

In Computer Science, senior Joseph Hampton placed fifth, senior William Reynolds placed fourth, junior Nathaniel Houchen placed second and sophomore Reichen Brewer placed first.

“It’s always fun doing it hands on,” Houchen said. “I feel like I had a good time with other people doing pure science.” 

In Ready Writing, senior Daniel Bunting placed fifth and Joseph Hampton placed first.

In Calculator Applications, senior Trevor Hennington placed fourth.

In Literary Criticism, senior Amy Olazaran placed fifth and senior Raymond Polexi placed first.In News Writing, sophomore Cassidy Cole placed fifth and junior Ashlyn Poole placed first.

“So this was really weird because I typically write features and I placed really high in the news than I did in feature so that really surprised me,” Poole said. 

In Copy Editing, Cassidy Cole placed sixth and Ashlyn Poole placed fourth.

“It was really unexpected because I got fourth, I didn’t think I’d place at all because that was kind of like the mile turning because I’m better at writing,” Poole said.

In Feature Writing, Ashlyn Poole placed fifth and Cassidy Cole placed first.

“Feature writing is very important to me, personally, because it’s one of those contests that I’m really trying to work on,” Cole said. “It used to be that my comfort zone was editorial writing. But recently, I’ve been trying to experiment with news writing and feature writing.” 

In Editorial Writing, Ashlyn Poole placed third and Cassidy Cole placed first. 

“Editorial writing is one of my favorite subjects because it’s almost a flip on traditional AP or new style, where you’re allowed to insert your own opinions and your own thoughts,” Cole said. “And while I’m still trying to tinker with other competitions, I’m glad I placed in this one.”

The Journalism team took first place overall with high scores from each event. The Speech and Debate teams will compete at the district level this weekend at Granbury High School, and the regional competition will take place April 23 at Texas Tech University.