Eleven students advance to UIL regionals on April 23 and 24 at San Angelo State University. Legacy’s One-Act troupe advance to the area competition on April 10. Legacy won second place in the district UIL meet on March 22 and 25. Legacy earned 289 points, 60 points behind Joshua with 349 and surpassed Stephenville. For the three years Legacy has been opened, they have earned third place and second place twice.

Legacy’s science team won first place. Senior Alex Bertucci won third place followed by sophomore James McMasters in fourth and junior Ian Cook in fifth. Competing in UIL Science for three years, Bertucci and the science team never placed first in district until this year.

“We’ve been working for three years to win district and I’m proud of the hard work and talent that led the team to win,” UIL Science sponsor Mrs.Celeste Mullis said.

In UIL Debate, senior Caleb Guttierez did not advance to regionals as the judge counted him off in the round for talking too fast. Guttierez employed a technique called spreading, a common strategy in which a debater would talk fast to fill all of his arguments into the time limit. Sophomore Alejandra Nieto advances to regionals in persuasive speaking, the only UIL debater to move on.

“I was disappointed that my argumentation was ignored, and I was instead judged on how pretty I spoke,” Guttierez said.

UIL Coordinator Brandon Austin organized the district event, moving around teachers and classes to accompany the various events during the school day. While Austin is happy for the team members who advanced, he feels more relieved district has ended.

“It was a nightmare,” Mr. Austin said. “I’m never happy unless we get first place.”

The Journalism team won first place with five people advancing to regionals. Seniors Gregory Uribe, Michelle Heath, Will Ritchie, Aaron Sakowski and junior Russell Kirby comprise the largest group Legacy UIL journalism has ever taken to regionals.

“I just hope we can have more of us advance to state than last year,” Ritchie said.