Similar to other activities, student publications have regional and state competitions. Regionals take place in February and state in May. For the Conway Springs staff, the competition generally is held on the Wichita State University campus, but due to COVID-19, the competition was held virtually instead.  The results were released March 6, and the top six students in each category move on to compete in state. Of the nine students who competed, eight qualified to continue on to the State competition.

“I was expecting it to be harder. I was really stressed about it at first because I thought I would have to make up a story instead of having something to base it off,” senior JoEllen Reep said. “I thought it would have to be perfect, and then I realized it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Reep is the assistant editor for the yearbook, and she competed in Sports Writing and Student Life Photography. She placed fourth in Sports Writing. 

“Competing this year was different because it was all online instead of going to the WSU campus,” junior Cassidy Beal said. “Competing in person has more pressure due to the time limit, but with it being online we had multiple days to finish the material. I still prefer going to the physical location because I tend to procrastinate.”

Beal, the yearbook editor in chief, competed in Sports Photography, Yearbook Sports Writing, and Yearbook Copy Writing. She placed fourth in Yearbook Copy Writing and second in Yearbook Sports Writing. 

“This year, I didn’t have to worry about transportation, but I had to do a lot more on follow-up to make sure the kids did their stuff,” adviser Tamara Salisbury. “I enjoyed hosting a competing time with pizza before. I thought if I gave students a dedicated time, the students would be more likely to get focused and get everything done.”