Finishing 2nd in the 5A 2015 State Academic Meet, the school’s UIL academic team started its season Saturday with students competing in the Flower Mound Invitational Tournament, with students placing in almost every category.

“I was very pleased with how our overall team competed,” UIL coordinator Jeff Schrantz said. “It was our first competition of the year and we competed against some of the strongest schools in the state. Journalism, in particular, really cleaned up this weekend.”

Along with Schrantz in his first year as UIL coordinator, many new coaches and competitors have also joined the academic competitions.  

“With a new coach and few returning members, I wasn’t really expecting to do this well as a team,” current events member, senior Visakh Madathil said via text. “Individually, I was a bit behind my study plans so to score this well early is encouraging.”

Along with individual successes in many competitions, the journalism team took first place.

“The Flower Mound Invitational is pretty difficult so I wasn’t going in with a huge expectation for medals,” UIL journalism member, senior Sarah Philips said via text. “The fact that I got first [place] in two categories and Henry [also] got first in another absolutely blew me away. I couldn’t believe it. On top of that, our journalism team placed first overall, something that we’ve never done at an invitational meet.”

Teams have been practicing for months with students helping each other every step of the way.

“All of our writers are also members of our Wingspan staff so we regularly comment on their writing and edit almost every single article they write,” Philips said. “However, UIL has a different formula of journalism, so we have to specifically help the rest of the team with making their writing up to UIL standards.”

The teams will compete in the Prosper High School Invitational on Feb. 13 with Schrantz expecting the students to improve even more before the district meet at Lone Star High School later in the year .
“There’s always room for improvement,” Schrantz said. “One of the reasons I like to go to meets with the toughest competition is that it allows our students to interact with and observe other elite competitors and can inspire them to double down on practicing to improve. In math and sciences, we went against 4A and 6A powerhouses, as well as several magnet schools. It’s good to test yourself against the best so you can get a realistic feeling for what you need to do to improve.”