AUSTIN — Cypress Woods High School seniors Zach Foster, Sammy Armstrong and junior Tristan Wiesepape each won state championships in their respective events, while the quartet of Foster, junior Aayush Gupta and seniors Henry Thurman and Fernando Mercado won a team title at the University Interscholastic League (UIL) 2019 Conference 6A Academic State Meet, held May 3-4 at the University of Texas at Austin.
Cypress Woods also added another state championship as junior Sarah Swift claimed first place in Division II Set Design at the UIL Theatrical Design 2019 State Meet, held April 25-26 at the Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center.
“Sarah Swift worked for months to create a set design for the State UIL Theatrical Design Challenge,” said Elizabeth Mace, Cypress Woods assistant theatre director. “Her Willy Wonka set design not only exceeded artistic expectations but was deemed by the state judge as ‘practical and a true creative genius.’ We could not be more proud of her work”
Foster won first place in accounting as he tied for the state championship with Edinburg’s James Champion with a score of 415. Thurman (eighth place), Gupta (19th) and Mercado (tied for 24th) combined with Foster’s first place to give Cypress Woods the team championship.
Wiesepape earned a championship in computer science, posting a score of 240 to finish eight points ahead of Cypress Woods junior and runner-up Steven Cheng. The two joined Armstrong (tied for ninth place) and senior Anand Iyer (15th) to place second as a team.
Cypress Woods High School junior Sarah Swift won a state championship after claiming first place in Division II Set Design at the University Interscholastic League Theatrical Design 2019 State Meet, held April 25-26 at the Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center.
Armstrong finished first in computer applications, registering a score of 320, while Cypress Woods had a second top-three finisher in Wiesepape (third).
“The Cypress Woods UIL Academic Team finished strong with a ‘212’ showing at state,” said Stacey Armstrong, Cypress Woods computer science teacher and UIL academic coordinator. “We finished with three individual state champions and an accounting team state champion. All of these students worked very hard and did everything asked of them and more. Some move on to college and many get a chance to do this again next year. Great to see them wrap up the year with some hardware.”
The competition marks the first half of the academic state competition. The second half will take place on May 29-30 at the University of Texas, when all speech and debate events will be held. Through the completed events, Cypress Woods has tallied 105.50 points and is leading Texas high schools for the overall UIL academic sweepstakes award.
Support the Cypress News Review:
1. Bookmark us!
2. Become a monthly patron for as little as $1 via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/CypressNewsReview).
3. Like our Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CypressNewsReview), follow our Twitter (https://twitter.com/CypressNewsRev), and subscribe to our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKIuHUwXbt_R673iszcLz7g).