Academic and One Act Play UIL contests were held during the week of March 19-24 with 16 students advancing to region competition at Baylor University April 13-14.

“I was really excited when I placed [in Headline Writing],” sophomore Hafsah Khwaja said. “I thought I wouldn’t place against all the competition, so it was really a pleasant surprise. It was my first medal for UIL. Doing UIL has been really fun, and I hope to do even better next year by studying more.”

Senior Vinh Ton placed in Computer Applications, Science, and Biology and will advance to regionals.

“I’m very proud of my results, and my team’s results as well,” Ton said. “I took practice tests and used the questions I got wrong as indicators of what I need to work on,” Ton said.

The literary criticism team got second place, with Akanksha Metha placing first.

“To prepare the students, I used release exams and packets of literary terms that included Nobel prize and Pulitzer prize winners,” English teacher Debbie Palmer said.

The Science team beat out the Westwood team, which had been undefeatable for years.

“I participate in competitions because I want to represent McNeil well,” sophomore Janssen Fang said. “I think that the number of students placing in district stands as a testament to how much dedication our teachers put into their students.”

Here are the results:

Computer Applications: David Baceski, coach

Vinh Ton, first place, advancing to regionals

Science: Rachel Eustice, coach

First Place Team

Vinh Ton, first place, advancing to regionals

Adithya Sreenivasan, third place, advancing to regionals

Amrita Mayavaram, fourth place, advancing to regionals

Apoorva Amudhan, fifth place, advancing to regionals

Top Biology

Janssen Fang, advancing to regionals

Top Chemistry

Vinh Ton, advancing to regionals

Journalism: Theresa Proctor, coach

Hafsah Khwaja, third place Headline Writing, advancing to regionals

Amy Gonzalez, fourth place Headline Writing

Sumin Son, third place Editorial Writing, advancing to regionals

Mariam Khwaja, sixth place Copy Editing

Prose Interpretation: Dominic Henderson, coach

Kyla Lee, second place, advancing to regionals

Pranav Vijayan, fifth place

Current Events and Issues: Brittney Bussell, coach

Rodolfo Gutierrez, third place, advancing to regionals

Social Studies: Karol Giblin, coach

Rodolfo Gutierrez, second place, advancing to regionals

Number Sense: Carla Reed, coach

2nd place team

Adithya Sreenivasan, fifth place

Calculator Applications: Carla Reed, coach

2nd place team

Adithya Sreenivasan, first place, advancing to regionals

Mathematics: Carla Reed, Ccach

2nd place team

Adithya Sreenivasan, second place, advancing to regionals

Jaden Fang, fifth place

Ready Writing: Debbie Palmer, coach

Akanksha Metha, third place, advancing to regionals

Literary Criticism: Debbie Palmer, coach

Second Place Team

Akanksha Metha, second place, advancing to regionals

Spelling and Vocabulary: Rachel Eustice, coach

First Place Team

Ashley Mathew, second place, advancing to regionals

Aishwarya (Rathna) Sivakumar, third place, advancing to regionals

Sudharson Ramapriya, fourth place, advancing to regionals

Anmol Mittal, sixth place, advancing to regionals

Persuasive Speaking: Dominic Henderson, coach

Tanish Bhowmick, fifth place

One Act Play: Aaron Johnson, director

Adam Sornat, Honorable Mention Tech Award

Ana Kinnebrew, Honorable Mention All Star Cast

Birdie Stabeno, All Star Cast