The UIL State competition was held on May 26-27 at the University of Texas campus in downtown Austin. In order to qualify for state, students must place in the top three at district and at regionals. Three people from Cedar Park qualified, making them three of the state’s top 12 in their category. The three that advanced to state were sophomore Macalah Thomas, junior Kerry Madden and senior Paige Parks.

Thomas has been competing in debate for the past two years and competed at state for the first time this year.

“Making it to state is a big deal for a sophomore, I even advanced to finals and placed third,” Thomas said. “I was pretty shocked when I found out I qualified, in preparation I wrote a lot of cases and did two hours of research each night. I love competing for debate because I learn something new every competition, and competing at UT was especially nice because it’s so gorgeous there.”

Madden competed in poetry for the first time this year, and made it to state.

“When I found out I qualified for state I was in a state of total shock and pure happiness,” Madden said. “It’s a big deal that I even got to go to State, so I’m not upset that I didn’t advance to finals. This was my first year competing in poetry, and I really love the style of the poetry performances because the imagery is so vivid. My goal for next year is to make it to finals at state.

Parks was an alternate to state in headline writing as a sophomore, and competed her junior year and this year as a senior.

“I was really happy when I found out I qualified, I felt I needed to because I went to state sophomore and junior year,” Parks said. “I’ve been competing for three years, before every competition I review the rules for headline writing. Headline writing has helped encourage me to apply to my college’s newspaper staff next year.”