News Media Production competes in IHSA competition
Adviser Cathy Wall, junior Bailee Clifton, and sophomore Frankie Messerschmidt at the IHSA state competition
April 28, 2022
The News Media Production class competed in IHSA Sectional and State competitions in April.
Four members competed in the Sectional competition on April 9. The Sectional events were held virtually with qualifiers moving on to an in-person event at Heartland Community College in Bloomington on April 22.
Sophomore Frankie Messerschmidt qualified for the State final.
The IHSA journalism competition invites journalism and yearbook students from all over Illinois to compete against each other in several categories. The categories in which Clarion staffers competed were advertising, editorial cartooning, editorial writing, feature writing, news writing, newspaper design, and yearbook layout double-page spread.
¨I thought the Sectionals went really well,” said Messerschmidt. ¨I liked the way of doing it online. I thought it was less stressful.”
Messerschmidt placed first in feature writing, and fifth in news writing in Sectionals. She advanced to State in feature writing, but didn’t medal
The members learned things about competing at this level.
“I learned what skills I actually have. In regular journalism what you write gets edited, but in the competition, they’re all your own words,” freshman staffer Sarah Girtman said.
Girtman placed fifth in editorial writing at the Sectional competition.
Junior Bailee Clifton placed fourth in ad design and fifth in editorial cartooning.
Only first through third advanced to the State competition.
¨The experience was a little different being my first virtual competition, but overall it was pretty good,¨ Clifton said.
Messerschmidt feels that she will be more prepared next year.
¨I learned to just stay calm and do my best. If I didn’t place then I didn’t place. Since I´m not a senior or quitting the class I always have next year,¨ Messerschmidt said.
