On Friday, May 2, Chrissie Spangler, Jacob Wright, Claire Byrnes, and Geoffrey Sanders, all seniors at Llano High School, will head to the State UIL Academic Meet held at the University of Texas in Austin to compete in their four different academic events.

At the Regional Meet held at Texas A&M in Kingsville over the past weekend, April 10-12, these students won this opportunity against tough competition. Six academic coaches accompanied eighteen students.

Claire Byrnes won the Regional Champion in Spelling and Vocabulary, while teammates seniors Barrett Clifton and Amber Ward and, junior, Kallie Geistweidt, placed third as a team in the Region with high scores. Their academic coach is Mrs. Debbie Engler.

Geoffrey Sanders placed second in Science, while senior John Grimshaw won the sixth place medal. Coached by Mrs. Christy Alexander, the LHS Science Team placed third at Region. The other member of the Science Team was sophomore Woody Byrnes.

Jacob Wright placed third in Computer Applications and is coached by Mrs. Emily Allen. Mrs. Allen has taken numerous students to UIL State in the past years.

Chrissie Spangler also placed third in her Journalism event. She will be competing in Feature Writing at the State Tournament.

Additonal students competing for LHS at Kingsville were: Kaitlyn Newell, Rachel McFerrin, Kaleb Schmidt, Chris Griffith, Aaron Perkins, and Valerie Hoerster. Although these students did not advance, they represented LHS with pride wearing their Llano UIL orange and black team shirts which were new this year.

The Number Sense Coach going to Region was Mr. Jess McWhorter, while the Calculator Applications and Math Coach was Mrs. Janet Sanders.

Region alternates attending who viewed the Lincoln Douglas Debate and Extemporaneous speaking events were juniors Greg Dukes and Tiffanie Vollbrecht and sophomore Jessica Smarr, accompanied by their coach Ms. Angela Dziuk. This was a valuable teaching tool for these speakers and their coach.

UIL Academics will be looking for new participants starting in September. Other academic events include Accounting, Computer Science, Social Studies, Current Events and Issues, CX Debate, Ready Writing, News Writing, Editorial Writing, Prose and Poetry, One Act Play, and Literary Criticism.

Any incoming freshmen are encouraged to contact Mrs. Debbie Engler, the UIL Academic Coordinator, at the high school for further information.