The school DECA group attended the state competition held in Overland Park on March 4-6. 13 students were awarded at the competition.

Alec Sappenfield, senior; Olivia Miller, Peyton Fair, Alexi Fischer, Morgan Kern, Sydney Rottinghaus and Brenda Santiago, sophomores, all qualified for the DECA international competition, which will be held on April 21-25 in Atlanta, Ga.

“My heart was racing all the way up to when my event was called,” Sappenfield said about how he felt before he found out he qualified for the international competition.

Sappenfield competed in the Innovation Plan Project, Miller and Fair both competed in the Business Law and Ethics Team Decision-Making event, Fischer took part in the Financial Consulting Project, Kern participated in the Hotel and Lodging Management Series, Rottinghaus competed in the Innovation Plan Project and Santiago qualified in the Academy event.

In addition to the students who qualified for internationals, several other students made it onstage for awards. They include Thomas Nguyen, senior; Emily Cords, Kirsten Jackson, juniors; Annabelle Daugherty, Ashley Gregg and Carlie Terry, sophomores along with Fischer, Kern, Santiago and Miller, who also placed in the top 10 but for a different event.

Nguyen placed in the Quick Service Restaurant Management series, Cords and Jackson both placed in the Hospitality Services Team-Decision Making.

Daugherty and Gregg placed in both the Principles of Business Management and the Start Up Business Plan events; Terry, Miller and Santiago each placed in the Community Service Project and Kern placed in the Advertising Campaign event.

“The best thing about [the competition] was being there with my teammates and meeting new people,” Jackson said about her experience at the competition.

15 DECA members attended the competition, and 1,239 DECA members across the state competed as well, according to Cindy O’Brien, DECA sponsor.

Everybody at the competition stayed and competed at the Overland Park Marriott. Some districts however, such as Shawnee Mission, allowed students to drive outside of the hotel’s general vicinity while they were not competing.

The events at the competition ran 15 hours a day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and sponsors held meetings even later.

While the school’s DECA group did fundraise money for pizza one night, students were left to their own for breakfast and lunch.