AUSTIN — Wimberley High School senior Gage Trudeau won the 4A State Championship at the UIL State Congress Event, held in Austin on Jan. 7-8. Trudeau was one of three WHS students who qualified for the event and became the first Congress State Champion in school history.
It was the third consecutive state qualification for Trudeau and was the first for qualifiers senior Sophia Vitela and junior Austin Howard. The trio swept the top-three places at the regional event in November to qualify for state. Regional champion Trudeau was also awarded Outstanding Presiding Officer at the regional competition — the second year in a row for him to receive that honor at the Region 13 event.
At the state event, the three Texans were among 61 4A qualifiers. After two three-and-a-half hour sessions on Day One of the contest, the top-20 scorers advanced to Day Two’s Super Congress final, held at the Texas State Capitol. Both Trudeau and Vitela qualified among the top 20. Day Two featured two more three-and-a-half hour sessions before its conclusion.
The UIL Congress competition models the legislative process of democracy, specifically, the United States Congress. Within this mock legislative assembly competition, contestants draft legislation (proposed laws and position statements) submitted to the tournament and they research the docket of bills and resolutions dealing with real-world social and political policies prior to the contest to prepare their speeches.
At the tournament, students caucus in committees, deliver formal discourse on the merits and disadvantages of each piece of legislation and vote to pass or defeat the measures they have examined, according a news release. Parliamentary procedure forms a structure for discourse and students extemporaneously respond to others’ arguments over the course of a session. Students are scored on the speeches they deliver, based on originality of thought, organization and unity, evidence and logic and overall delivery.
Trudeau’s first-place finish gives WHS back-to-back state-placers, following Josh Bober’s fifth place finish in 2024. The WHS Congress team is coached by Kyla Brookshier-DeLeon.
