The Jimmy Carter Early College High School UIL academics team captured second place in overall sweepstakes and first place in journalism at the La Joya High School Invitational on Saturday, Nov. 8.
The journalism team, coached by Ivan Silva, Maria Villalpando and Luis Alaniz, led the way with a strong showing across all five writing events. Junior Kaylee Cantu earned first place in veteran feature writing, while Luz Mercado took first in veteran news writing. In the novice division, Danika Treviño claimed first place in both news and editorial writing and placed second in headline writing and fourth in copy editing.
Other standout journalism competitors included Jonathan Hernandez, Daniela Barrera, Valeria Guerrero and Debhani Hernandez, all of whom contributed points that helped secure the journalism team’s first-place finish.
The team also saw success in STEM and business events. Senior Gabriel Ozuna placed second in both calculator applications and mathematics. In science, sophomore Jeremy Johnson earned first place in his grade division. In accounting, Giselle Reyes and Angel Reyna placed second and third, respectively, in the novice division.
Additional points came from events including literary criticism, number sense, social studies, informative speaking and prose interpretation.
“This is the result of weeks of hard work from our students and coaches,” UIL coordinator Ivan Silva said. “They continue to make us proud by competing at a high level across so many academic disciplines.”
The team will continue preparing for future UIL meets as it builds momentum heading into the spring competition season.