Marfa Junior High students flexed their academic might at a UIL competition against area schools, ultimately pulling out a tie for first place. 8th Grade. Front row, left to right: Sara Salgado, Ava Flores and Messiah Licon. Back row, left to right: Amaya Gomez, Raven Martienz, Kayla Vasquez, Taryn Klockman, Isaiah Ramos and Dylan Ibarra.

FORT DAVIS — Marfa Junior High academic competitors showed up to the University Interscholastic League’s Academic competition in Fort Davis on Wednesday, December 1, ready to battle it out with calculator skills, oratory chops and their artistry and more. At the end of the event, Marfa walked away with a top score of 630.5 points, tying for first with Fort Davis.

Other competitors at the event included Balmorhea, Van Horn, Valentine and Sierra Blanca, and against their regional competition, Marfa was able to claim top finishes in a variety of subjects.

7th Grade. Front row, left to right: Giselle Torres, Ayden Alverez, CJ Garcia and Joshua Kelly. Back row, left to right: Zoey Salgado, Madison Cash, Vanessa Diaz, Belen Soto, Mateo Meza, Avalon Schroeder and Daniela Fernandez.

The junior high students competed by grade, with sixth graders placing first as a team in Art, Dictionary Skills, Maps, Graphs & Charts, Mathematics, Music Memory and Ready Writing. Seventh graders nabbed the lead in Dictionary Skills, Maps, Graphs & Charts, Modern Oratory, Ready Writing, Science and Spelling. For the eighth graders of Marfa, first place finishes were won in Listening, Maps, Graphs & Charts, Modern Oratory and Oral Reading.

6th Grade. Front row, left to right: Gavin Vana, Miguel Gonzales, Alyssa Harden, Lily Aguero, Alberto Salgado and Terrence Resendiz. Back row, left to right: John Anthony Van Etten, Adonise Lujan, Zoe Tolliver, Lynna Hinojos, Diego Sanchez Bravo and Austin McGary.

First place individual finishes were well earned by seventh grader Christopher Garcia in Art; sixth grader Lily Aguero in Dictionary Skills and Music Memory; seventh grader Mateo Meza in Dictionary Skills, Science and Ready Writing; seventh grader Joshua Kelly in Maps, Graphs & Charts, Social Studies and Modern Oratory; sixth grader Terrence Resendiz in Mathematics; eighth grader Sara Salgado in Music Memory; eighth grader Amaya Gomez in Oral Reading; sixth grader Zoe Tolliver in Ready Writing; and seventh grader Avalon Schroeder in Spelling.

“We are so proud of our students and coaches,” said Marfa Junior and Senior High Principal Allison Scott. “They all worked so hard to prepare for the meet. This is the best our school has performed in several years.”