Published: April 06, 2006 01:09 pm         

Gainesville has successful UIL year

GHS ranked as the first-place team at the conference 3A district 6 UIL spring academics meet Saturday in Denton.

“As far as the kids go, 42 competed and 18 are going to regionals,” she said. “We won, for the seventh year in a row, and we go to Odessa on the 22nd. Our one-act play competed Friday, and placed third as alternates.”

The team placed first in the following events: Accounting, current issues, cross examination debate, journalism, literary criticism and speech. The team placed second in computer science and spelling and vocabulary.

Uselton said this year’s district meet was slightly different.

“The set-up was different. For one, it was held at Texas Woman’s University, not Grayson County College as usual ... Also, I was district coordinator this year, which kept me busy,” she said.

Logan Rankin, who placed in several events, said Uselton is doing “an awesome job” as UIL coordinator.

“I was more ready this year, so it was a lot easier for me,” Rankin said, noting he spent more time preparation for the events.

Fred Rosenbaum, Gainesville resident, offered his congratulations to the teams and individual competitors. He said they deserve a more prominent place of honor for their scholarly efforts.

“I’m trying to convince the world that these people are athletes,” Rosenbaum said.

As an example, he noted chess is by definition a sport. So while UIL academics may not be an athletic sport, it is a competition which rewards excellence and achievement.

The winners from Gainesville High School of each event are as follows:

Accounting — Monica Colunga took second place with 12 points, with Taylor Mitchell and Brittany Brumlow taking fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Current issues — Vanessa Llanas took first place with 15 points and Ryan Cox took second with 12 points.

Computer applications — Logan Rankin took fourth place, with eight points, while Melaney Trimble came in fifth with sixth points.

Computer science — Matt Hermes took fifth place with five points.

Editorial writing — Rachel Davis took third place wth 10 points and Olivia Martin took fourth place with eight points.

Feature writing — Logan Rankin took sixth place with four points.

Headline writing — Logan Rankin took third place with 10 points, with Rachel Davis coming in sixth with four points.

Informative speaking — Jake Burkhart placed second with 12 points, and Vanessa Llanas placed third with 10 points.

Lincoln-Douglas debate — Austin Favors won first place, with 15 points.

Literary criticism — Tammy Chase placed first place with 15 points.

News writing — Logan Rankin placed fourth with eight points while Rachel Davis placed fifth with six points.

Persuasive speaking — Ryan Cox placed first with 15 points, followed by Blair Brown in second place with 12 points.

Poetry interpretation — Richard Trammell took first place with 15 points and Kayla Davis scored

Prose interpretation — Maegan Kennedy took fifth place with six points followed by Tammy Chase with four points in sixth place.

Ready writing — Caiti Stover scored eight points, taking fourth place.

Social studies — Monica Colunga took second place, with 12 points.

Spelling and vocabulary — Brothers Josh Contreas and Issac Contreas tied for fifth place, with five points each. The event graders moved the brothers into a tie-breaker round, and each had the same score then, as well.

The GHS UIL one-act play troupe competed Friday in regionals, earning third place out of six teams. While this places the team as “alternate” for the competition, they do not expect to advance to area unless one of the other teams does not compete.

The one-act play team consisted of: Brittany Brumlow, Nicole Cangemui, Lacey Christiansen, Josh Contreras, James Cuellar, Charles Dollar, Megan Douthit, Missy Embrey, Derek Fleeman, Brittany Jeffus, Cameron Kingsley, Mickey Knighten, Vanessa Llanas, Stephanie Matonic, Kelly Mitchell, Jenny Parsons, Logan Rankin, Jeremy Sicking, Briana Smith, Richard Trammell, Melaney Trimble and Dustin Wilson.

Awards went to: Dustin Wilson and Charles Dollar, all star cast; Jeremy Sicking and Richard Trammell, honorable mention; and Nikki Cangemi and Melaney Trimble, tech awards.

In Cross examination debate, Candra Baker and David Denison took first place, qualifying for state.

On the Net:

To search for other UIL academic meet results, see http://utdirect.utexas.edu/uil/mlc2_pub_meet_list.WBX

Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net