The LHS Academic team was victorious recently as they secured the overall 5A State Championship for the 2nd tie in two years. Speech and Debate members placed in several events, One Act Play advanced to State and the computer applications, computer science and journalism teams all gained points towards the championship.
“I am so proud of all the UIL competitors,” journalism coach Neda Morrow said. “Every team worked all year to achieve this goal, and they truly made Lindale proud with a 2nd overall state championship in academics.”
This year’s UIL One Act Play production, ‘Anna Karenina’, advanced to state and received sixth place overall. This is the first time in ten years that Lindale has advanced to state for One Act Play.
“It was exciting for the students to experience a state appearance,” director Taylor Jarman said. “It was amazing as a director for my students’ hard work to pay off. They worked so many hours and put in strong work for the play this year.”
The cast also took home three individual awards. Junior Evan Howell received All-Star Cast Member, junior Kayleigh Melvin received an Honorable Mention and senior Sydney Smith received the Overall Outstanding Technician award.
“Performing at the state competition was something I will never forget,” Howell said. “Walking onto the stage created a huge rush of emotions. For all of us, that was our largest audience. However, the number of people was something that we as artists had to overcome. Our best performance was at State, which is all we can ask for.”
The journalism, computer applications and computer science teams competed at state on May 4 at the University of Texas at Austin.
“They worked really hard to get to state,” computer applications coach Amanda English said. “They put in numerous hours studying and doing practice tests.”
Senior Tyler Meador placed second in computer applications, senior Adrienne Parks placed second in Editorial writing and sixth in Feature writing and senior Tyra Rodden placed fourth in Editorial writing and fifth in Feature writing. Parks and Rodden also received the 5A State Championship Journalism Team award.
“Advancing to state was a super exciting experience- especially for my senior year,” Meador said. “I was not very stressed since I knew scores going into it already place me in the top 3, so I was able to really just enjoy myself before the competition. Getting second was also obviously really awesome just to see all of my efforts come to fruition.”
During the final UIL state meet, four students scored the final points in order to put us on top. Evan Bewersdorf was the runner-up state in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and once again the state champion in Informative Speaking. Junior Maddie Mezzell won the silver medal in Prose Interpretation and Ashlyn Ellgass won a bronze medal in Informative Speaking. The Speech and Debate team also received the state championship for the fourth year in a row.
Debaters Ronak Desai and Anthony Wyatt contributed to the state championship by winning the state championship for policy debate in both the University Interscholastic League and Texas Forensic Association. TFA is a state-wide policy debate competition against every high school in Texas, which the two won for the first time in Lindale’s history.
“I am so proud of our students! To win back to back State Championships in UIL Academics is truly an awesome achievement,” Stan Surratt, Lindale ISD Superintendent, said. “The Tradition of Excellence of Lindale ISD is certainly alive and growing. Our students and UIL coaches deserve great praise and recognition for their extraordinary successes. Lindale High School is one of the smallest schools in the 5A division, but with our students’ superior academic abilities and great work ethics, along with wonderful support from their UIL coaches, they always represent Lindale at the highest level. It is a great day to be a Lindale Eagle!”
