Posted: Thu, 19 May 2011 08:04 AM - 15,216 Readers

By: The Lakelander

Whitney High School U.I.L. science competitors successfully defended their team state championship on Saturday, May 7, at the State U.I.L. Tournament at the University of Texas at Austin.

This is the third straight U.I.L. science team state championship for the Wildcats. Even though Whitney only competes against 2A schools, their team score of 470 was higher than all five class 1A schools, four of the five class 3A schools (just two points below class 3A champion, La Feria), and higher than the team score of 432 by Lake Travis, the Class 4A Region 4 wildcard champion, and the team score of 430 by Waco Midway, the class 4A Region 1 champion.

With five total science state championships (top team, top overall individual, top biology, top chemistry and top physics) up for grabs, Whitney came home with four of the five.

Since 2009, WHS U.I.L. science has earned eight total science state championships, counting team and individual championships. Students on the winning 2011 team are senior J.T. Miller, senior Robin Wright, junior Nick Ramsey and sophomore Cameron Lee.

All state competitors from Class 1A to Class 5A take the same 60-question test in biology, chemistry and physics.

Five teams competed for the Class 2A science team title, with Whitney finishing first with 470 points. New Boston was second with 366 points, Irving North Hills and Thorndale were third with 220 points and Ballinger was fourth with 190 points.

Whitney and 4A Highland Park are the only schools in Texas with a streak of three straight U.I.L. science team championships. Whitney was the only school in the Central Texas area to win an academic state championship out of all 25 possible disciplines, other than Rosebud-Lott in accounting.

J.T. Miller also earned his second straight top individual scoring state championship, as well as his first top individual biology and physics state championship. J.T. narrowly missed out on the top individual chemistry state championship.

Miller痴 score of 242 beat all of the 1A, 2A, 3A and all but one of the 4A competitors. Miller also beat the entire three-person class 2A teams of Irving North Hills, Thorndale and Ballinger.

Cameron Lee won fourth in the state with 144 points.

Whitney U.I.L. science coaches Bobby Pierce and John Bruton say they would like to thank the community for the support shown over the years. Miller and Wright will graduate this year, but Pierce and Bruton have many talented students ready to fill their spots to keep the state championship tradition going strong for years to come.

"While other schools have to rebuild their programs when seniors graduate, we are fortunate enough to have many talented underclassmen ready to fill their positions," said Coach Pierce. "WHS doesn稚 have to rebuild for the future, we just have to reload to win the next state championship."

Still, the coaches say it will be difficult to fill the void of Miller and Wright, but the team will return with Cameron Lee and Nick Ramsey as leaders for the 2012 team, which will go after a fourth straight championship next year.