Return to Headlines
Wimberley HS senior Azula Hunter-Thiam headlined WHS's efforts at the UIL Academic State Meet with a State Championship in Prose Interpretation. Hunter-Thiam swept through the Prose competitions the entire spring, winning the district, regional, and state competitions. A year ago, as a junior, Hunter-Thiam won the bronze medal in the same event. In the Prose event, competitors have two categories of pieces to perform: Category A is 'Culture or Dreams and Aspirations' and Category B, which is 'This Speaks to Me.' For her Category A piece, (performed at state prelims) Hunter-Thiam performed a selection based on her dream of being an actress. The selection was composed from pieces of Yes Please by Amy Poehler and The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide by Jenna Fischer. At state finals, Azula performed her Category B piece, which was a selection of pieces from the book Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis. The Category A piece is similar to the one used by WHS 2022 graduate Jack Garrett last spring. Garrett won the 4A silver medal in prose last year. The time limit for each piece is seven minutes.
May 19, 2023
Wimberley HS senior Azula Hunter-Thiam headlined WHS's efforts at the UIL Academic State Meet with a State Championship in Prose Interpretation. Hunter-Thiam swept through the Prose competitions the entire spring, winning the district, regional, and state competitions. A year ago, as a junior, Hunter-Thiam won the bronze medal in the same event. In the Prose event, competitors have two categories of pieces to perform: Category A is 'Culture or Dreams and Aspirations' and Category B, which is 'This Speaks to Me.' For her Category A piece, (performed at state prelims) Hunter-Thiam performed a selection based on her dream of being an actress. The selection was composed from pieces of Yes Please by Amy Poehler and The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide by Jenna Fischer. At state finals, Azula performed her Category B piece, which was a selection of pieces from the book Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis. The Category A piece is similar to the one used by WHS 2022 graduate Jack Garrett last spring. Garrett won the 4A silver medal in prose last year. The time limit for each piece is seven minutes.Also placing at the state meet was junior Josh Bober (pictured with Hunter-Thiam) in Informative Speaking and junior Jacob Mantsch in Science. Bober finished in fourth place and Mantsch was 5th overall. Mantsch also was the top scorer in the state in the Chemistry portion of the Science event. Also finishing in the top-10 was senior John Moore, who tied for eighth in Current Issues and Events. The WHS teams in Current Issues and Events, Science, and Social Studies finished fourth, fifth, and fifth, respectively.
When accumulating point totals from all events, WHS finished in a tie for 19th in 4A with 38 points. This includes points scored by the duo of Bober and Kathryn McKinney at the state Policy (CX) Debate event earlier this spring. WHS also finished fifth in the Speech events team scoring standings. The Wimberley HS UIL Academic Coordinator is Kyla Brookshier-De Leon.
Posted below are WHS's state meet contestants:
Current Issues and Events - 4th Place Team - Coach Brad Biggers
8th (tie) - John Moore
11th (tie) - Josh Bober
11th (tie) - Josh Bober
18th (tie) - Alex Caldwell
20th (tie) - Hyatt Romp
20th (tie) - Hyatt Romp
Feature Writing - Coach Laquita Sellers
Peyton Shaw
Informative Speaking - Coach Kyla Brookshier-De Leon
4th - Josh Bober
Poetry Interpretation - Coach Kyla Brookshier-De Leon
Chloe Swindle
Prose Interpretation - Coach Kyla Brookshier-De Leon
1st - Azula Hunter-Thiam
Science - 5th Place Team - Coaches Laquita Sellers and Pablo Garcia
5th - Jacob Mantsch (top performer in Chemistry)
16th - Kayla Pierce
24th - Kaitlyn Marinos
24th - Kaitlyn Marinos
29th (tie) - Tyler Youens
Social Studies - 5th Place Team - Coach Brad Biggers
16th (tie) - Chloe Thompson
20th - Samuel Crow
20th - Samuel Crow
21st - Rachel Caldwell
22nd - Trinity Rivera
22nd - Trinity Rivera
