The Computer Science, Accounting and Journalism teams will compete at the UIL State Meet at the University of Texas at Austin this weekend. The competition will span over two days, with Computer Science Programming, Headline and News Writing taking place on Friday and Accounting, Chemistry and Social Studies on Saturday. Ten students will compete over the course of the weekend.

“Just making it to state is a tremendous accomplishment in Computer Science,” Computer Science coach Galen Goodreau said. “This is only the second time in LISD history that a Computer Science team has made it to state.”

The Computer Science team has prepared for state by having weekly practice sessions, as well as participating in competitions leading up to district and regional competition. The state Computer Science team includes Bo Deng, Pierce Lai, Varun Gorti and Nicholas Rose. The Computer Science team won the regional meet, as well as the Journalism team.

“Winning region was awesome because I loved being with the team and going on a little road trip,” junior Jennifer Walker, who placed second in headline, said. “My jaw dropped when they announced my name at regionals, and I am so excited to go to state.”

The Journalism team will take Camden Perez in Editorial Writing, Jennifer Walker in Headline Writing, and Sarah Tierney in Headline and News Writing.

“My journalism kids have been writing their UIL Leaguetown practice prompts to prepare for State,” Journalism coach Lela Coker said. “We’ve never had three journalism kids advance in the same year to state, I hope they do well.”

Students advancing in categories not including Journalism and Computer Science are Lucy Xu in Chemistry and Rayhan Jhanji in Social Studies.

“I am excited to advance to state,” junior Camden Perez said. “I have worked hard to be prepared, and I am ready to bring home the trophy and add it to our wall.”