Screams fill the gym. A playlist of party songs is being made. The EHS journalism team has won state and amassed the most points by any school at IHSA state ever.

With 39 points, the EHS journalism team tied with Stevenson High School for first place in the IHSA State Journalism Competition on April 26.

Edwardsville now sits tied with Naperville Central for the most journalism state championships ever, with three.

Not only did they tie for first place, they also beat the runners-up by 19 points. Edwardsville’s team members placed in nine of the 18 categories and competed in 17.

Only four of the journalism members had competed at state before. Junior Veda Kommineni has been on the team the longest and has competed at state for three consecutive years.

“I’ve qualified every year for double page layout, but this was my first time placing in it at state,” Kommineni said. “Winning first place [in infographics] at state [my] freshman year was definitely one of my favorite experiences, but I was honestly a little afraid I wouldn’t be able to top myself.”

Another returning member was senior Owen Anderson, but this year, he competed in review writing. Last year, he competed in headline writing and yearbook caption writing.

“Last year, I was only a yearbook student but, after a full school year of experience, I was way more confident in my abilities,” Anderson said. “Not to toot my own horn, but I know I can write a good review, so it’s nice to know the state judges think so too.”

But having experience wasn’t necessarily their biggest advantage. The team featured 14 new members, one of whom is senior Georgia Gaughan. She placed first in feature writing and was the only member to place first in their category.

She also competed in newspaper design but didn’t place.

“I definitely felt more confident in newspaper design because I spent so much time preparing for it; feature writing was kind of an afterthought, ironically,” Gaughan said. “It took a lot out of me to compete in two categories but it’s still a rewarding experience.”

State Placers:

Feature Writing: first place, Georgia Gaughan

Headline Writing: second place, Sydney Andrews

News Writing: second place, Pera Onal

Yearbook Caption Writing: second place, Logan Szymanski

Copy Editing: third place, Julia Towell

Review Writing: third place, Owen Anderson

Sports Writing: third place, Zach Kennett

Yearbook Layout: third place, Veda Kommineni

Photo Story Telling: fifth place, Reyez Hangsleben

State Qualifiers:

Atticus Ball, Sydney Chong, Zach Cohn, Sami McKenney, Colleen Moore, Izzy Robinson, Tennyson Rose and Max Thrun