The Burton Panthers traveled to Texas A&M Corpus Christi for the Regional UIL Academic Meet, Friday, April 25th. The two-day meet saw competitors from over 100 schools converge on the campus to battle for the coveted top three individual spots in 23 events and the top team spot in 10 events that qualify students for the state contest in May at the University of Texas Campus. The Regional competition marks the culmination of hundreds of hours of study and practice for the top competitors.
From this field of talented students, two Burton students captured coveted spots at the State Meet. Competing on Friday in the Computer Science contest, Cadeyn Manley (Jr.) finished 2nd of 36 as the Regional Runner-Up. Manley scored 44 of the Computer Science team's 56 points, which placed the Panthers 6th overall as a team. Dane Cleboski (Fr.) finished 10th, and Ethan Schubert (Jr.) finished 31st. Manley marked the first Burton advancer from Regional competition since 2023, when Victoria Wiesepape finished 3rd in News Writing.
On Saturday, Kara Kaye (Sr.) captured the second of Burton's two state spots as the Regional Champion in Physics, finishing 1st of 58 students. Kaye's first-place finish marks the first time a Panther has qualified as a Regional Champion since 2016, when Sophia Layman (Sr.) won the 1A Regional Literary Criticism contest. Kaye also competed on Burton's Number Sense team. Kaye was joined in the Science Contest by Vivian Layman (Sr.), who finished 11th. Layman also placed 9th of 43 in Literary Criticism and also stepped in at the last minute to compete on the Number Sense team and the Current Events team.
While not advancing to State, the Panthers also had a noteworthy performance in Social Studies from Devlin Douglas (Jr.), whose 7th of 40 place finish led the team to a 5th place tie. Douglas, who also represented the Panthers in Current Events and Informative Speaking, was joined by Austen Bostain (Jr.) and Hunter Duffy (Jr.).
The State contest for both Panthers will take place on Monday, May 19th, at the University of Texas Campus in Austin.