After a five year winning streak, Edwardsville High School’s fell to Taylorville Senior High School at the IHSA Journalism Sectional Championship.

Taylorville ended the day with 70 points and Edwardsville ended in a close second with 68 points. Belleville West followed in third with 60 points, Alton in fourth with 38 and Okawville in fifth with 35.

Newspaper and Yearbook Staff members and other students on the Edwardsville Journalism team’s main goal is to earn points for the team. To earn points, an individual would place in the top six in their category: sixth place earning one point up to first place earning six. The top three individuals in each category will continue onto state.

The state qualifiers included Anna Farrar, first in Yearbook Caption Writing; Cierra Veizer, first in Advertising; Josh Perry; first in Newspaper Design and Feature Writing; Sam Lance, first in Sports Writing; Ava Fehrmann, first in Review Writing; Nicole Burbach, first in Copy Editing; Kiara Smidt, second in Editorial Cartooning; Anna Kutz, second in Headline Writing; Jessica Fosse, third in Yearbook Layout Double-Page Spread; Emily Kloostra, second in Photo Story Telling.

Veizer was glad she participated, even though competing in Journalism is new to her.

“I was kind of nervous going into sectionals because I had never done Advertising before, and I wasn’t expecting to win,” she said. “When I won, I was really excited and surprised about going to State.”

Students who placed fourth, fifth or sixth still could earn points for the team, but missed a state qualification. This included Zoe Robinson, fourth in News Writing; Molly Farrar, fourth in Yearbook Copy Writing; Ryan Ash, sixth in Infographics; Molly Farrar and Fosse, sixth in Yearbook Theme Development. Emma Lazerson competed in Editorial Writing.

In the 2017 season, EHS tied for first in the state tournament with Naperville South. EHS or any other Southern Illinois school has ever won the state tournament. Now, EHS looks to present well on Friday to follow up their win and compete on a higher level.

“I’m really excited for state to see how my caption writing skills do against kids from Chicago and other parts of the state,” Anna Farrar said.