Once again, SE proved to every school in the surrounding area that this is the year of the Wolverines when high school academic UIL competitors swooped the district title and became all around academic champions for the second consecutive year.  

The academic UIL meet was held here at the high school on March 23rd with the four additional schools in the district in attendance, including Lazbuddie, Amherst, Cotton Center, and Kress. After the final calculations were made, SE would lead the way with 671 points. Cotton Center would follow, taking home 321.5 points, Kress with 220.5, Amherst totaling 120.5, and finally Lazbuddie with 104.5 points.  

Several SE UIL teams were named as the first-place team, making it possible to advance to regionals as a team and compete at least one more time. However, earning first place team in both journalism and speaking enabled SE to claim the all-around academic championship.  

“We all had to prepare a lot, especially the coaches,” sophomore Emma Stevenson said. “Once everyone gets into contest mode, they are pretty serious, and we brought home the win once again. Not only that, but our journalism and speaker teams stepped up to get that championship.” 

On the journalism team was senior Sayler Beerwinkle (Copy Editing 2nd place, News Writing 1st place, Feature Writing 3rd place, Editorial Writing 1st place, Headline Writing 4th place), junior Jenna Bridges (Feature Writing 4th place, Headline Writing 3rd place), sophomore Taytum Goodman (News Writing 3rd place, Feature Writing 1st place), junior Rosie Hernandez (News Writing 4th place), sophomore Lynnsey Mahler (Editorial Writing 4th place), senior Katy Jones (Copy Editing 4th place, Editorial Writing 2nd place), sophomore Grace McIver (Headline Writing 5th place), and junior Annabelle Anchondo (Copy Editing 5th place).  

“Having the journalism class really has helped me this year prepare for UIL in feature and news,” Goodman said. “I am really happy I made it to regionals in all three of my events, and I am going to really practice my prose and writing stories more.” 

Advancing with the speaking team is junior Oscar Flores (Prose 2nd place), sophomore Emma Samaron (Poetry 3rd place), Taytum Goodman (Prose 1st place), freshman Kinze Henson (Poetry 1st place), freshman Braileigh Goe (Poetry 2nd place), sophomore Xavyer Mosqueda (Informative 1st place), Emma Stevenson (Informative 2nd place), freshman Nehemiah Castillo (Informative 3rd place), Lynnsey Mahler (persuasive 2nd place), and Annabelle Anchondo (Persuasive 1st place). 

“For me, the key to being successful and performing so well is simple: believe that you are going to fail. It might sound odd, but success cannot exist without failure,” Anchondo said. “If we don’t practice and make mistakes, then we will never succeed. We trusted the process, had faith in our abilities, and listened to the advice from coaches and peers as we failed and practiced our hearts out. Now we have a successful day we can all be extremely proud of.” 

And success is exactly what came. Several UIL teams ranked first overall and will be attending regionals, including the mathematics team with senior Davey Crandall placing 2nd, Annabelle Anchondo 4th, junior Melany Vidales finishing in 6th, and Emma Stevenson. 

“It was a great day to be a Wolverine! Everyone worked hard  that day to help their teams and SEHS be successful,” Mathematics coach Gwen Parish said. “I’m looking forward to their accomplishments at the regional academic meet in a couple of weeks.” 

The Science team will also be in attendance with members senior Timothy Tanaro (5th place overall), freshman Tyler Tanaro, junior Alex Alvarez (6th place overall), and Melany Vidales (3rd place overall and top biology score). The Number Sense team also was first and advanced to regionals with Davey Crandall (1st place), sophomore Braden Bradley, sophomore Slade Beerwinkle, and Melany Vidales (3rd place). 

“This was my first year competing in Science, and honestly, I was a little surprised,” Vidales said. “But I’m pretty excited and also nervous about regionals but in a way that makes me feel prepared and ready to compete at a higher level.” 

Individuals advancing in other events include junior Roel Fuentes (Current Issues and Events 3rd place), freshman Reymundo Gonzales (Computer App. 1st place), sophomore Alejandro Gonzales (Computer App. 2nd place), Alex Alvarez (Computer App. 3rd place), Davey Crandall (Accounting 1st place), Annabelle Anchondo (Ready Writing 1st place), Lynnsey Mahler (Ready Writing 2nd place), and Grace McIver (Lit Crit 2nd place). 

“As far as being prepared goes, coaches and students are working hard to practice their events, and they truly care about the competition that lies ahead of them,” Samarron said. “We are all really excited and ready to tackle regionals. Everyone who competed that day should be extremely proud of themselves because we all did a fantastic job.” 

Others who participated in the academic meet and placed in the top 6 included Xavyer Mosqueda (Current Issues and Events 5th place), sophomore JJ Jaramillo (Current Issues and Events 6th place), senior Dorrian Samarron (Accounting 6th place), junior Abrie Escalante (Spelling and Vocab 5th place), senior Joshua Samaron (Social Studies 5th place), Alex Alvarez (Social Studies 6th place), Davey Crandall (Calculator App. 5th place), Katy Jones (Accounting 5th place, Lit Crit 4th place), and Rosie Hernandez (Lit Crit 5th place). 

The regional meet is set to be at SPC in Levelland on the 22nd of this month. The entire Wolverine Nation is proud of everyone and can’t wait to see students excel at another level of competition. 

“Better watch out because regionals, here we come!”  D. Samarron said.