Plainfield North High School senior Dylan Budd is the 2024 Illinois High School Association journalism sports writing champion.
Budd earned first place in the Sports Writing category at the IHSA state journalism competition held on April 26, 2024, at Heartland Community College. He also competed in Review Writing.
“Dylan has worked tirelessly over the last three years honing his skills to be able to be a journalism state champion,” PNHS journalism adviser Lara Hannemann said.
“It makes it even sweeter that he won for sports writing which is his passion,” she added.
“Coming into state, I had never even placed, so I wanted to bring something home in my last year,” Budd said. “I figured my piece would place, but not win; I’m thankful they considered mine the best.”
In all, 20 student journalists from Plainfield North, Plainfield East, Plainfield South high schools and Plainfield High School – Central Campus participated in the state events.
These four students took Top 6 honors at the state competition:
Plainfield North High School
• Dylan Budd, senior, first place in Sports Writing
Plainfield East High School
• Frida Mora Garcia, senior, fourth place in Editorial Cartooning
• Zaara Syeda, junior, fifth place in Yearbook Copy Writing
Plainfield High School-Central Campus
• Emma Cowden, senior, sixth place in Feature Writing
District 202’s state participants included:
Plainfield High School-Central Campus
• Natalie Adelmann, junior – TV News
• Diego Cambray, junior – TV News
• Emma Cowden, senior – Feature Writing (sixth place) and Newspaper Design
• Hailey Fay, junior - Infographics
• Tyler Ibarra, junior – Sports Writing
• Brooke Plowman, senior – Yearbook Copy Writing
• Nicholas Rees, junior – TV News
• Josh Thepsouvanh, senior – Advertising
Plainfield East High School
• Mia Debelevich, senior – Editorial Writing
• Mia Graske, senior – Feature Writing
• Emily Mendez, junior – Infographics
• Frida Mora Garcia, senior – Editorial Cartooning (fourth place)
• Shyla Munoz, senior – Yearbook Theme Development
• Isabella Ramirez, senior – Yearbook Theme Development
• Zaara Syeda, junior – Yearbook Copy Writing (fifth place)
• Daniella Torres, junior – Review Writing
Plainfield South High School
• Alyssa Carino, senior – Copy Editing
• Rachel Mackey, senior – Feature Writing
• Ashley Mezewich, senior – News Writing
Plainfield North High School
• Dylan Budd, senior – Sports Writing (first place) and Review Writing