OLCHS Journalism Team Wins Sectional, Places In Top 10 In IHSA Finals

Oak Lawn IL

26 April, 2022

12:53 AM

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OAK LAWN, IL — The late, great sportscaster Howard Cossell once said, "The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give." The Oak Lawn Community High School Journalism Team brought their competitive spirit to challenge the best high school journalists from around Illinois at the IHSA Journalism State Tournament Finals at Heartland Community College in Normal, on Friday. The team earned a tie for ninth place overall and secured a spot amongst the strongest journalism teams in the state. The team is coached by is coached by Pat DiFilippo, Jessica Nickless and Brian Frangella. The OLCHS Team competed in 17 events after a thrilling sectional win on April 9. The state tournament finals were the first live journalism event since 2019. The Oak Lawn Spartans were excited to face their competition in person. "It was a nerve-wracking but exciting experience to compete at state for the first time," senior Sarah Lindsay said. "Seeing those you were competing with around you just added to the experience." The experience at state include the OLCHS team finishing in the top six in five events in the State finals. Senior Yusra Abdelrahman competed in double duty and earned a sixth place for advertising and a fourth place for editorial writing. Sports savant junior Brendan Gallian wrote his way to third place for sports writing. Sophomore Sierra Knutsen placed fifth in yearbook caption writing. The duo of JM Claudio and Mia Reyes received third place medals for their yearbook theme development and earned their way on the award stage. "Finally getting to compete in person amongst all schools was truly amazing," senior Adriana Hall said. To meet new people and share my love for photography made me an even better photographer." The OLCHS team will lose some veteran leadership, but hopes to learn from their experience and come back even stronger next year.