Fourteen people competed in the regional Kansas Scholastic Press Association competition on Feb. 26. This competition allows yearbook and newspaper students alike to test their skills against other high school students in their school division.

This is the first year since 2014 students have competed in the 5A/6A division.

“For regionals there are 38 different contests (19 total with two people competing),” instructor Bill Gasper said. “Nine of them are on-site, and 10 of them are called digital entries which you do in advance.”

Those who participated in digital entries could be place in a variety of categories: Academics Photography, Advertising, Headline Writing and Design, Infographics, News Page Design, Photo Illustration, Sports Photography, Student Life Photography, Yearbook Layout and Yearbook Theme and Graphics.

On-site contests include Copy Editing, Sports Writing, Editorial Cartoon, Yearbook Copy Writing, Feature Writing, News Writing, Cutline Writing, Editorial Writing and Yearbook Sports Writing.

Senior Emily George competed on-site as well as submitted entries ahead of the contest.

“My digital entries, I had a lot more time to work on it, and perfect it I guess,” George said. “For Cutline Writing we had a set amount of time we could write them. I still feel like I did better on Cutline Writing.”

The on-site competitions were split into two sections with different categories, allowing the same student to compete in two categories, depending on where Gasper placed them.

“If I think they’re going to be successful in that particular event, I put them in there,” Gasper said. “It’s pretty hard to predict how we’re going to do. Last year when we were in 4A, the competition wasn’t quite as intense, and I knew we would be one of the best there. In 5A, they’ve changed some things around, and we’re in a different regional grouping with some schools from southeast Kansas including Pittsburg and Wichita. I’m not really overly familiar with those programs, but I’m confident with the talent with the talent we put in there,. I’m confident with the digital entries we put in there, so I think we’re going to do pretty well.”

Competing in the Ad Astra Regional 5A/6A competition, Hays High placed second with 23 overall awards and five first places. The results are as follows:

Contest A: Copy Editing

Third place: senior Isabelle Braun

Contest C: Editorial Cartoon

First place: senior Scout Perryman

Honorable mention: sophomore Levi Weilert

Contest D: Yearbook Copywriting

Second place: sophomore Caitlin Leiker

Honorable mention: senior Alyssa Underwood

Contest E: Feature Writing

First place: sophomore Allison Brooks

Third place: junior Allison Hillebrand

Contest G: Cutline Writing

Honorable mention: seniors Alyssa Underwood and Emily George

Contest H: Editorial Writing

First place: sophomore Alicia Feyerherm

Honorable mention: senior Isabelle Braun

Contest J: Yearbook Sports

Honorable mention: sophomore Anna Brull and senior Jacob Maska

Contest K: Academics Photography

Third place: senior Kaitlyn Brown

Contest N: Headline Writing and Design

First place: senior Isabelle Braun

Honorable mention: sophomore Anna Brull

Contest P: Infographics

Third place: senior Brittani Park

Contest Q: News Page Design

Honorable mention: senior Isabelle Braun

Contest R: Photo Illustration

First place: junior Paige PolifkaDenson

Contest S: Sports Photography

Third place: senior Jacob Maska

Contest U: Yearbook Layout

Third place: senior Emily George

Honorable mention: senior Alyssa Underwood

Contest V: Yearbook Theme and Graphics

Third place: junior Emma Pfannenstiel

19ibraun@usd489.com