Eight Denton High students have advanced to state in UIL competitions. Omar Akram, Jared Davis, Rebecca Fu, Ana Mitchell, George Roberson, William Root, Varada Salminth, and Kevin Ye, will go on to compete against the best in the state May 20-22 at the University of Texas in Austin.

Fu was a part of the Spelling team that took first place, she also won third place in Headline Writing and first in Spelling individually.

“At first I didn’t feel very well about how I did in  but I ended up placing and it was a great feeling,” Fu said. “I was happy because I mostly placed in the top three throughout the year in Headline Writing, but was excited to advance to state.”

UIL Academic Coordinator and Mathematics coach Fred Mueller helped lead the students toward making state.

“It’s absolutely exciting,” Mueller said. “Eight of our kids making it to state demonstrates that academic excellence is alive and well at Denton High School. Anytime a student earns a trip to state it’s an awesome thing.”

All of the students who made state are enthusiastic about competing in Austin and hope to bring back gold medals and up to $20,000 in scholarships.

“This is my first year to make state in Journalism,” Fu said. “I’m really excited and I hope we win!”