On April 5, the students in High School Publications and Sport Reporting classes competed in the yearly IHSA sectionals.
The students had the opportunity to compete in different competitions revolving around yearbook designs, newspapers, and writing. This yearly competition is a chance for students to showcase their talents and creativity through different competitions for a chance to go to state against all of the top competitors. In total there were fifteen students in HS. Publications and Sport Reporting that competed in sectionals all of their entries helped gain points to try and win first place as a school team with Carterville placing fourth.
Out of those fifteen students that competed, four of them qualified to go to state. Sophomore Adie Sykes placed first in Photo Story Telling, and senior Hailey Bolen also placing first in Yearbook Caption Writing. Hailey also placed fourth place in Yearbook Page Design. “The IHSA sectionals aren’t just about competing. It’s also about proving how far you have come and how much you have learned” said Lucy Gossett.
Senior Elise Judd placed second in Sports Writing. The last person to place in top three and qualify for state was Chloe Busby, placing third in News Writing.
The rest of the eleven students who did not qualify for state still made a tremendous showing at sectionals. There were three that got fourth place. Junior Lucy (Ash) Keim and senior Nevaeh McClellan placed fourth in Yearbook Theme Development. Freshman Isabella Dion placed fourth in Newspaper Design.
Senior Aiyana Williams placed fifth in Editorial Cartooning. She said, “This was my first time ever competing in IHSA sectionals and I thought it was really exciting! Competing in editorial cartooning was intense and it wasn’t easy, but I had fun.”
While IHSA is an intense competition, it’s also fun! Also winning fifth place was Marlee Rosenbery who competed in Yearbook Copy Writing. Marlee also placed sixth in Advertising. Freshman Madison Gilkerson finished off the fifth place section of the leaderboard in Review Writing. “It was really scary but at the same time it was fun to do something out of my comfort zone but I’m very glad I did it” said Gilkerson.
There were five sixth place finishers. To start our sixth place scorers, junior Kaleigh Applehans placed sixth place in Radio News. Also in sixth place was Max Richardson (12), competing in Copy Editing.
“I was nervous about sectionals, but when I got there and started working I realized it really wasn’t that bad and I ended up placing 6th in infographics. Even though I didn’t place high enough to compete in state, I’m still proud of myself for trying something new,” said freshman Abby Hovenga. Last but certainly not least was sophomore Meade Smith who placed sixth in editorial writing.
Overall, these students came out to compete for their school and gave all of their effort. No matter what these students placed they still helped our team. The four state qualifiers represented their school proudly at the 2025 IHSA State Journalism Contest in Bloomington on April 25.
