Redhawks win big at district UIL

The+schools+UIL+academic+teams+competed+in+the+district+9-5A+meet+on+Friday+and+Saturday+at+Centennial+with+the+Redhawks+finishing+second+overall+losing+to+Centennial+High+School.+For+the+journalism+team%2C+it+was+their+second+straight+district+championship.+

Ana Cuen

The school’s UIL academic teams competed in the district 9-5A meet on Friday and Saturday at Centennial with the Redhawks finishing second overall losing to Centennial High School. For the journalism team, it was their second straight district championship.

Aaron Boehmer, Editor-in-Chief

From Calculator Applications to Cross Examinations, Copy Editing to Computer Science, many Redhawks placed in the top six at the UIL Academic District 9-5A Meet Friday and Saturday, finishing in second with 271 points and several students qualifying for the regional meet in April. 

Qualifying for regionals, senior Tom Punnen took home a first place medal in Calculator Applications and was excited by the math UIL team’s performance despite the virtual obstacles. 

“I think our math UIL team did really well at districts, and I was happy to see our practice pay off as we had several individuals place,” Punnen said. “We were not able to practice as much as we have in past years, but virtual study sessions and practice tests helped us do well.” 

Another team that took home gold was journalism, with all four individuals advancing to the regional meet. 

“I feel really good about it and I think everyone worked really hard,” Wingspan editor-in-chief, junior Trisha Dasgupta said. “I’m glad that the hard work we put in shone through in this competition. It was really rewarding and I’m so excited to advance to regionals in the Feature and Editorial Writing events.” 

Coming out of districts, managing editor and senior Ana Cuen placed third individually in Feature Writing, enjoying not only showing her skills individually but as a team as well. 

“My favorite part about UIL was being able to showcase my abilities in a competitive environment as a student journalist,” Cuen said. “It was really cool to win as a team since we work every day as a staff, and just to compete alongside the other editors and see what we are able to put together in a timed scenario.” 

 

Below is a list of Redhawks that placed in the top six, with the top three advancing to the regional meet:

 

Calculator Applications (Coach: Rumery)

Tom Punnen, 1st (Regional Qualifier) 

Satvik Duddukuru 4th

 

Computer Applications (Coach: Benson)

Sadie Johnson, 1st (Regional Qualifier)

 

Computer Science (Coach: Bugh)

William Zhang, 6th

 

Copy Editing (Coach: Higgins)

Shreya Jagan, 1st (Regional Qualifier) 

 

Cross-Examination Debate (Coach: Porter)

Sanjan Dandu, Shrika Guda, 6th

 

Current Issues (Coach: Nelken)

William Li, 5th

 

Editorial Writing (Coach: Higgins)

Trisha Dasgupta, 2nd (Regional Qualifier)

 

Feature Writing (Coach: Higgins) 

Trisha Dasgupta, 2nd (Regional Qualifier)

Ana Cuen, 3rd (Regional Qualifier)

 

Journalism Team, 1st (Coach: Higgins)

 

Lincoln Douglas Debate (Coach: Porter)

Shray Jain, 3rd (Regional Qualifier)

 

Mathematics (Coach: Rumery)

Tom Punnen, 3rd (Regional Qualifier)

Hannah Wang, 6th (Regional Qualifier)

 

News Writing (Coach: Higgins)

Aaron Boehmer, 2nd (Regional Qualifier)

Trisha Dasgupta, 6th

 

Number Sense (Coach: Rumery)

Soumyaneel Deb Chaudhuri, 5th

 

Persuasive Speaking

Anisya Nair, 2nd (Regional Qualifier)

 

Science (Coach: Rittenhouse)

Timothy Ma, 3rd (Regional Qualifier)

Vagmin Viswanathan 5th

 

Social Studies (Coach: Nelken)

Vagmin Viswanathan 3rd (Regional Qualifier)