UIL competitors who advanced in their district events, all had the opportunity to attend a trip to Lubbock for the regional UIL event at Texas Tech University. The trip took place over the span of three days in which all competitors came back Saturday night. 

The events that were held at the competition were news writing, ready writing, social studies, science, math and debate. 

“It was tough since we hadn’t had a UIL competition since spring of 2019, and a lot of kids hadn’t travelled anywhere before regionals, so I think that aspect of the competition made it different,” journalism teacher Ismael Barraza said. “And I think that might’ve made it a little stressful.” 

One of the events held at the competition was science where junior Andres Viseras competed in. 

“The science contest consisted of a multiple-choice test about biology, chemistry, and physics,” Andres said. “I wasn’t nervous until I was told that I didn’t appear on the list of participants. They had to call a lot of other people to check if I was a participant. I didn’t place in my event, and I feel I could have accomplished a better result in the contest if I had done more studying.” 

When students got to Lubbock, there were planned activities for the competitors when they weren’t competing. 

“Some students went to the mall, or to the Main Events, we ate at several different restaurants and explored the Texas Tech Campus,” debate coach James Thompson said. “It was a great return to normality after the COVID pandemic.” 

One of the events at the competition was persuasive speaking, which Thompson coached, where sophomore Justice Harris participated in. 

“In persuasive speaking, we draw five current event topics and have 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech,” Justice said. “There’s no internet access as we are expected to use sources and be knowledgeable on the topics we chose. I feel like I should have studied more and been less insecure about my skills because I felt like I would’ve done better if I were more confident.”