Competing for the first year in the 5A division of UIL Academics, Melissa High School won the regional championship after earning a total of 165 points, with seven students qualifying to advance to state in their individual meets. Overall, Melissa saw 12 students place in the top six at regionals, in addition to the four awards won in the One-Act Play contest.
In Computer Applications and Persuasive Speaking, respectively, Tyler Mathieson and Andrew Nager not only qualified to advance to state, but were also named regional champions with their first-place wins.
Second place state qualifiers include Ira Roy in Computer Applications, Miranda Sirota in Editorial Writing, and Dax Laber in Persuasive Speaking. Third place state qualifiers were Brinley Smith in Informative Speaking and Emerson Trevino in Prose Interpretation.
This year’s One-Act Play, “A Monster Calls”, was named the state alternate. Four students won individual awards, including Bailey Thornburg and Makenna Worsham-Bowen with All Star Cast, Kyah Wells with Honorable Mention All Star Cast, and Lorelai Thompson with Outstanding Technician.
The Melissa High School coaches for the 2023 UIL Academics season were Callie Barge, Doug Bingman, Richard Brannon, Kyle Brenner, Brenden Dimmig, Lin Hanusa, Jill Hare, Molly Kennedy, Megan Moore, Rachel Nelson, Israel Reyes, and Emily Sanderson.