Wimberley High School returned from the UIL 4A Academic State Meet with one individual state championship and two teams that came home with medals.
Senior Quinton Mendoza won first place at the UIL Academic State in Current Events and was runner up in Social Studies.
“Quinton is such a deserving kid,” Current Events Coach Brad Biggers said. “There is nobody that works like him. He is obviously very smart, but he has a work ethic that is second to none.”
Mendoza defended his state championship in current events from last year, and was the top score in the state regardless of classification. Along with his team finishes, he has nine state-wide UIL Academic medals over his high school career.
The Current Events team of Mendoza, Harrison Mayhew, John Moore and Alex Caldwell placed second after falling in a tiebreaker to win the state championship by one point. They came into this tournament as the defending state champions.
“We felt like we could repeat again, but it is a year where the competition for 4A has been really fierce,” Biggers said. “…To tie for first place and lose in the tiebreaker – it hurts being that close. But it is a remarkable group of young people who dedicate themselves to this academic pursuit on top of their regular schooling. The work ethic it takes to be this successful at state is awe inspiring.”
The Social Studies team of Mendoza, Tillman Martinez, Moore and Trinity Rivera tied for third place.
“In Social Studies, the topic was the modern Olympics, so our students had to read about everything in the Olympics from 1896 to the present,” Biggers said. “The essay this year was about doping and performance enhancing drugs, and two of our students scored in the top eight, which is really great.”
The Science team of Ava Armstrong, Jacob Mantsch, Kaitlyn Marinos and Tate Murphy finished in fifth.
The Academic Meet Speech event competitions will take place at UT-Austin on May 24-25. WHS students have four event entries from three students in that portion of the competition including Jack Garrett, Eveleigh Jennings and Azula Hunter-Thiam. Team points scored during the Speech events will count toward the overall team score, which is a cumulative total of points scored in academic events, speech and debate events and the One Act Play. Wimberley currently sits in 14th place in the state in that ranking.
The full list of those who competed at the state meet is below:
Copy Editing
Carson Ramsey (top-12 in state)
Current Issues
Team Place: 2nd
1st - Quinton Mendoza
9th (tie) - Harrison Mayhew
13th (tie) - John Moore
13th (tie) - Alex Caldwell
Feature Writing
Carson Ramsey (top-12 in state)
Science
Team Place: 5th
17th (tie) - Ava Armstrong
20th - Jacob Mantsch
21st - Kaitlyn Marinos
25th - Tate Murphy
Social Studies
Team Place: 3rd (tie)
2nd - Quinton Mendoza
5th - Tillman Martinez
16th - John Moore
17th (tie) - Trinity Rivera
