The end of April was a busy time for STCE’s academic teams, sending two teams off to state competitions. On April 24, 2025, the X-ray newspaper had their state send-off, with the STCE Math Team having their send-off the day after on April 25. The following days, each academic team left to compete at state.
The X-ray newspaper qualified for state following virtual sectionals hosted by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Series on April 5, 2025. Six members from X-ray’s staff participated in sectionals in various categories. Freshman Adley Wilson and sophomore Nicole Mayer placed sixth in TV news, sophomore Arjun Patel placed fourth in Review Writing, junior Lauren Voigt placed 2nd in Feature Writing, senior Brynn Copp placed first in Copy Editing and sixth in Yearbook Copy Writing and senior Yzabelle de Luna placed first in Newspaper Design and third in Editorial Cartooning. The top three competitors in each category qualified to go to state.
To qualify for their state competition, the Math Team competed in the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) regionals at Northern Illinois University on Feb. 22, 2025. After competing in various events, the team was able to qualify two teams and two individuals for state. Freshmen Mairead Carlson, Samantha Jahnke, Parker Lee, Chloe Mallon, Maggie Schoenfelder and Emma Schwartz qualified for the Algebra I team, freshmen Mairead Carlson, Parker Lee and Chloe Mallon and sophomores Sarah Krohn, Gretchen Erwin, Jaxson McInnis, Jesse Schiltz and Zaac de Luna qualified for the Freshman/Sophomore eight-person geometry team, McInnis qualified as a Geometry Individual and junior Thomas Howe qualified as an Algebra II Individual.
The IHSA Journalism State competition was held on April 25, 2025, at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. Copp, Yzabelle de Luna and Voigt competed in their respective categories that afternoon, with Copp earning fifth in Copy Editing and Yzabelle de Luna earning third in Newspaper Design.
“This was the first year actually making it to state, and I thought it was a really good bonding experience and a great way to round out my senior year,” said Copp. “I didn’t expect to place, but having the support from the people I went with was really awesome.”
The Math Team attended the ICTM state contest on April 26, 2025, at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Qualifiers competed in their categories, earning a certain number of points for every question they got right. The Algebra I team earned 16th place as a team, McInnis earned 160th place as a Geometry Individual, Howe earned 74th place as an Algebra II Individual, and the eight-person team earned 31st place.
“Going to state definitely made me smarter,” said Lee. “I thought I couldn’t learn more about a subject I learned two years ago, but it showed me I could.”
While these competitions mark the end of their competitive seasons, both teams hope to send people to state again next year. For more information about these teams, contact Math Team advisors Scott Dabrowski and Lynn Trevarthen or X-ray advisors Amanda Hayes or Jacob Stewart.
