Carnegie Vanguard Shines at UIL Academic District Meet: Students Advance to Regionals

The CVHS UIL Academic Team showcased their academic knowledge, achieving outstanding results in the 2024-2025 Conference 6A District 18 competition. The tournament, held at Westbury High School, saw performances from CVHS students across various academic events, with many advancing to the regional level.

Among the individual performances, Suhurrith Adhikari placed first in Accounting with 159 points, earning a spot to compete at regionals. He was followed by Rohan Jangama, who placed third with 142 points and Joann Fernandez, who placed fifth with 125 points, earning an alternate position.

“During the competition, I was struggling too, but combined as a team, we pushed through and reached regionals,” Jangama said.

Adhikari’s, Jangama’s and Fernandez’s total score was 426, which qualified them as a team for regionals.

“We worked hard individually, but it was the team spirit that made the biggest impact,” Jangama added. “I’m proud we are all getting to move forward together.” 

Krish Jha, another standout competitor, won the Computer Science event with 118 points and advanced to regionals, as teammate Sriprajnav Koduri placed second with 108 points. Johnny Pham placed third with an 80-point finish and advanced to regionals as well. 

The journalism section logged similar scores, with the team placing overall first with 141 points in total. Individual performances had Andrew Lee securing first in Headline Writing and News Writing, Natalie Ho second place in Feature Writing, both securing a regional bid.

Other outstanding performances included Jingyuan Fan and Chloe Tran, who respectively placed first in Copy Editing and Feature Writing and advanced to the next round. Tran also secured a regional qualification position for Headline Writing by placing third.

“This competition was more challenging, but I feel like I’ve grown a lot though preparing for it,” Tran said. “I’m looking forward to pushing my writing even further at regionals.” 

In Lit Crit, the team made up of Natalia Nguyen, Lamson Tran, Evelyn Castro and Elaina Cuevas performed and came out first as a team. Nguyen claimed first place with a combined score of 48 points, while Tran took second place with 45 points. Castro earned third place with 41 points and Cuevas followed in fourth place with 34 points. Nguyen, Tran and Castro will move on to regionals, while Cuevas will serve as an alternate.

“It feels great to be going to regions with such a strong team,” Lamson Tran shared. “We’ve studied so hard, and we’ve built a bond that helps us perform even better.” 

The Mathematics contest also saw similar performances. Jha once again did himself proud, taking second place with 136. Manas Aggarwal took fourth place with 106 and Zachary Bang took sixth place with 74. The team made of Jha, Aggarwal and Bang will be an alternate for regionals. 

In Spelling, CVHS was second place with 77 points. Sandy Kong came out with a category first-place medal and 77 points as well as a regional bid. Lamson Tran and Gary Simaj both placed, standing second and third, respectively.

The impressive results of CVHS students in the UIL Academic Tournament reflect their intellect, perseverance and dedication. The school’s combined score of 657.5 points shines their status as a team to watch in the district. The students are currently readying themselves for the regional tournament on April 26 at Foster High School, where they hope to carry their momentum further and win placements at the state competition.

“We are going to continue to prepare as a team and get along so we can have the rewarding feeling of qualifying for state,” Jangama expressed.