Godley High School junior Reagan Brooks has advanced to the UIL Academic State Meet after placing second in ready writing at the UIL Region II-4A Academic Meet held April 24-25, 2026, at East Texas A&M University in Commerce.

The regional contest featured top qualifiers from across North Texas competing in a wide range of academic and speech events.

Brooks qualified for state in ready writing, a UIL contest designed to build and refine students’ writing skills through expository compositions. In the contest, students respond to one of two prompts drawn from literature, publications or speeches, crafting an essay that explains, explores or supports a topic using clear reasoning and evidence. Entries are evaluated on organization, development of ideas and overall effectiveness of the argument.

GHS had a strong showing overall at the regional meet, with multiple students qualifying to compete and representing the district across academic and speech events.

Regional qualifiers included:

• Accounting: Kyle Black, Jardiel Jimenez, Adam Pempsell, Colt Williams
• Editorial: West Farley, Ava Jackson
• Feature writing: Naimah Ahumada
• Headline writing: Isaac Christensen
• Informative speaking: AJ Garcia-Robles
• Lincoln-Douglas debate: Emma Lindamood, Reagan Brooks, Taylor Bain
• Literary criticism:  Reagan Brooks
• Number sense: Blake Weeg
• Persuasive speaking: Brett Fancher, Kori Iglehart
• Poetry interpretation: Trynity Lively
• Prose interpretation: AJ Garcia-Robles
• Ready writing: Reagan Brooks
• Spelling: John Gillard

The UIL state competition is scheduled for May 18-19 at the University of Texas at Austin.