Melody McLaughlin, a senior at Hobbs High School, and Leo Aguilar, junior, were recently named Scholastic Art award winners. Their pieces were chosen for regional recognition from more than 165,000 entries. Their work will now be submitted to judges for national level distinction.
Jefferson dual language student Amy Vejil was the winner in the district's Spanish Spelling Bee - which requires students to not only spell, but also insert
accents in Spanish.
Jarred Pratt, a four-time district champion and HHS senior, capped his wrestling career with a state championship title during the state meet in Albuquerque in February.
Houston students had a successful weekend. Brittlyn Grey, a 7th grader, was named Outstanding Soloist at the District Solo and Ensemble Festival in Hobbs while Rushi Mankad, an 8th grader, was on two separate teams that scored a first place in the State Science Olympiad competition.
TiAundra Luevano, a Houston 8th grader, spelled "spherical" correctly in the 11th round of the District Spelling Bee to take the title.
Fifth-grader Matthew Shoults Gomez won the districtwide Science Fair in January. Gomez' gathered bacteria from computer laptops as part of his research on whether nurses are less contaminated than students.
Mallet Reid, who was the first HHS student to finish second in diving at a state competition, also became the first to win a diving scholarship to a Division I school - the University of Evansville.
(May 2009) Adam Marinovich, who won both academic and athletic scholarships at the HHS Awards Program, was also given the Principal's Leadership Award by HHS staff. Each year the award goes to the student who best combines academics with citizenship and other Character Counts traits.
(March 2008) Jeff Taylor was both jubilant and relieved when the Eagles overcame several obstacles -- including a technical foul call in the last 41 seconds -- to edge archrival Clovis and win a 16th state basketball championship for Hobbs. It was an epic high school battle that many in the crowd of 15,000 said was the best they'd ever seen.