Journalism Students Dominate District UIL Competition
Six Lamar student journalists earned highly coveted University Interscholastic League (UIL) medals over the weekend, as Lamar hosted the annual district competition.
There are five UIL Journalism categories: Copy Editing, Editorial Writing, Feature Writing, Headline Writing and News Writing. In total, nine Lamar students participated in the five events. Six students walked away with awards.
Lamar Scroll Editor-in-Chief Journey Bortzfield was excited to compete in the event for the first time. The senior, who also serves as yearbook editor considered it her duty as a leader to compete.
“I asked Ms. Talton to sign me up for every event,” Bortzfield shares. “Even if I didn’t win – I wanted the experience and I wanted to encourage my fellow staffers to always look for opportunities to grow as writers.”
Much to her delight, Bortzfield won 2nd place in Feature Writing and 5th place in both Copy Editing and News Writing.
Fellow yearbook staffer, senior Finn Lynch earned 5th place honors in Feature Writing. The feature writing category gives students 45 minutes to craft a high-school newspaper feature story, including vibrant verbiage and relevant quotes.
Seniors Ben Powers and Sofia Omana were invited to join the UIL team as first year journalism students. Both jumped at the chance. Powers took on the challenge of Headline Writing, a competition which requires students
to read six news stories and write six fitting headlines during a short 30-minute exam period. Powers earned first place. Omana excitedly took on the editorial writing contest – a category that asks students to take a stance on a hot-topic issue. This writing submission must not be written as an opinion, but instead as a collective stance of an editorial board. Omana understood the assignment and she confidently earned a first-place medal in this competition.
Junior Gracie Golden also took on Headline Writing for the first time and as a first-year journalism student. She walked away with the 5th place medal.
Sophie Greer was the lone sophomore in the journalism competitions for Lamar. She participated in four of the five categories and won a medal in all four. Greer earned 2nd place in Copy Editing, a competition that affords students only 15 minutes to identify errors in three writing samples. She also earned 4th place in both Editorial and Headline Writing, as well as 6th place in News Writing.
“I am so proud of these young people for taking on this challenge with me,” journalism teacher Ari Talton says. “Not only did they listen attentively during our study sessions, but they also gave up their Saturday to represent our organization and our school.”
Contest honorable mentions are Isabella Andersson (9th), Angelmarie De La Rosa (12th) and Katherine Hernandez (11th).
Winners of 1st and 2nd place medals will venture to Prosper’s Rock Hill High School in late April for the Regional UIL Competition.
