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Area UIL Competition News

Jacksonville middle and high school students competed in the district academic spring meets in March.

The seventh-grade teams placed third overall, and the eighth-grade teams placed fourth overall. The seventh-grade art team placed first.

Middle school students placing first in the meet included James Burns for impromptu speaking, Makayla Mack for modern oratory and editorial writing, and Shelby Bland for editorial writing. Other students representing JMS were Ronni Boyer, Jayme Lewis, Matt Brockelman, Logan Price, Daine Anderson, Austin DeWolfe, Brayan Diaz, Patricia Barrera, Jalyn Stone, Daniel Hardin, Emily Walker, Morgan Weaver, Brandon Diaz, Patrick Foster, Xavier Salaiz, Thomas Alberts, Sean Frazier, Eric Perkins, Meagan Barber, Raeklevia Mathis, Shelby Bland, Natalie Haddad, and Mackie Satterwhite.

Jacksonville High School students William Igbokwe placed first in persuasive speaking and prose interpretation. Luke Weaver placed second overall in science and Joseph Villavisencio placed first in biology and sixth in science overall.

These three students will compete at the Regional UIL meet in Denton on April 12.

In addition, Kaitlin Turney placed sixth in prose interpretation and the science team comprised of Luke Weaver, Joseph Villavisencio, Shayla Robinson and Kayla Robinson, finished second.

Other students representing JHS were Betsy Gomez, Britney Bones, Devron Weatherall, Dusten Hubbard, Erik Guaneros, Amanda Bradshaw, Mikaela Villavisencio, Jonathan Bullock, Chris Chilton, Jessica Spencer, Russell Wiggins, Austin Strong, and Israel Posada.

Tyler Junior College will host the Region III University Interscholastic League spring competitions beginning today on the TJC main campus.

More than 1,500 high school students from 66 conference AA schools are scheduled to participate. The students will compete in academic, theatrical and athletic events.

Academic events will be held today and Saturday in Jenkins Hall, Potter Hall, Genecov Science, Pirtle Technology and Wise Cultural Arts Center.

The public is invited to portions of the competitions, including play performances in Wise Auditorium today. Play performances begin at 2 p.m., and each last approximately one hour.

Admission to play performances is $5 per person.

Plays will be presented by the following schools: East Chambers High School, "The Diary of Anne Frank;" Quitman High School, "Golden Boy;" Troup High School, "The Women of Lockerbie;" Buffalo High School, "Pippin;" Waskom High School, "Unexpected Tenderness;" and Paul Pewitt High School, "By the Bog of Cats."

Photography is prohibited during performances.

Area TAPPS Competition News

On April 5, Grace Community School finished in second place overall at the TAPPS State Speech/Academic Meet. The competition was held in Austin and there were 24 schools in the competition. Individual results are: Advait Ghuge, first in persuasive speaking; Hannah Woolverton, fifth in prose interpretation; Rachel Morse, fourth in solo acting and third in poetry interpretation; Brad Pillsbury , fifth in current events; Jenny Hamilton/Dave Ritcheson, firstin duet acting; Travis Milner, third in social studies; Mandy Hartung, sixth in social studies; Heather Tiller, first in literary criticism; Jordan Payne, fifth in mathematics; Audrey Ritcheson, fourth in original oratory; Austin Blythe, second in computer science; Joseph Morrison, fifth in computer science.

Grace Community School is classified as a 5A school in TAPPS, and competed against 24 other 5A schools at the state meet.