District UIL academic winners that made it past regional competition are on their way to state. Students have been preparing since the second semester started. They participated and competed in different categories. The district competition was held at Chapin High School. Regionals were held at Lubbock, Texas.

“It was a tough competition because we were competing against different schools and it was to a total of almost 20 people, and we didn’t have a clue who we were going up against,” accounting team member junior Natalia Gonzalez said.

Practicing can lead to something great.

“I have been preparing for this for about a month,” Gonzalez said. “I competed in accounting and took first place,” Gonzalez said.

Hard work pays off when it comes to competition.

“That’s been one of my main focuses, I’ve been putting in extra time working and preparing,” Gonzalez said.

Students prepared in an effort to make competition less challenging.

“The competition for accounting wasn’t as tough as we thought it would be honestly. I believe it wasn’t because we practiced hard. We were able to perform very well in the competition,” accounting team member junior Carlos Baeza said.

The accounting team won first and third place, making it to regionals.

“Five of us competed. We were chosen to go and decided then if we’d want to go,” Baeza said.

About four people from the accounting team left for regionals.

“I believe our team is ready for regionals. We need to work harder for regionals because there are a lot more schools competing and we want to come back with victory,” Baeza said.

Road trips can be long.

“The trip over there was long and I read two thirds of a book,” Ready Writing sponsor Michelle Merritt said.

Even though they have been preparing for a while things can still change.

“We have been preparing for this competition all year. Alexa Esparza was my last choice for the competition because my student didn’t show, but the best part is she won 1st place,” Merritt said.