By Marin Murray.
Journalism and debate students competed in the 26th annual Wylie UIL Valentine Classic on Feb. 10 in efforts to prepare for their district competition in April.
“My favorite part was getting together with everyone,” junior journalism competitior Teresa Lopez said. “I also liked challenging myself with the time limit and getting down the topic.”
Lopez competed alongside the rest of the newspaper staff, who showed well at the competition.
Sophomore Willoe Phillips placed third in feature writing and sixth in headline writing, while sophomore Joey Villarreal placed fourth in feature writing. Senior Marin Murray placed second in copy editing, third in editorial writing, first in feature writing, first in headline writing and first in news writing.
“My favorite part was having a time limit,” sophomore Willoe Phillips. “In class, we don’t really time ourselves when practicing, so it was definitely a surreal experience going from unlimited time to having a set amount of minutes.”
Each of the journalism events focus on a certain element or type of writing within scholastic journalism. However, the skills learned and practiced in these competitions can translate into other subjects.
“A skill that I use here that can help me at school is quick reading,” Phillips said. “Quick reading, being able to understand what I’m reading and being able to pull certain things out of what I’m reading are all important. I can use it in English, math and science; I can use it everywhere.”
The debate team also had a number of positive results. Senior Mo Carroll placed first in persuasive extemporaneous speaking and freshman Alaina Marz placed second. Adene Tilahun placed third in informative extemporaneous speaking and Cassidy Scott placed fourth. In Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, junior Julia Langkiet placed first and senior Miles Etter placed second.
“My favorite part of extemporaneous speaking is that I get to learn about a bunch of different current events topics,” Carroll said. “I also get a chance to prepare in the moment and speak on it. I just get to learn a lot.”
The two teams will attend one more practice meet in Big Spring on March 23 to refine their skills before they compete at district.
“For district I’m looking forward to everyone coming back to one spot, because it’s going to be back at Wylie,” Phillips said. “I’m looking forward to seeing everybody come in, compete and absolutely dominate.”
