AUSTIN — For the fifth consecutive year, Holy Trinity Catholic took first overall in the State Academic Meet for the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools. The Celtics amassed 72 points, winning the 2A crown by 13 points over second place Our Lady of the Hills Catholic School from Kerrville on Saturday. “I’m so proud of these students,” academic and forensics coach Chris Mosmeyer said. “Every year, there are new challenges and new faces, and somehow, we just pull together and win enough to come out on top.” The schools earn points by placing in the individual events. There are 20 academic events — six speaking events, 12 testing events and two journalism events. A first place earns 10; second place earns eight; third earns six; fourth gets four; fifth gets two; and one point is awarded for sixth place. The Celtics were led this year by freshman Will Linz, who earned 26 points with first-place finishes in number sense and Mathematics and a third place in calculator. Also placing first were junior Phillip Henderson in Social Studies and freshman Bradford Smith in Persuasive Speaking. Others placing included Amy Lindberg, second in spelling; Emily Linz, third in spelling, third in literary criticism; Stephanie Hass, tied for third in solo acting; Shelby Moeller, sixth in poetry; and the Trinity Times, sixth in newspaper. “This was a particularly stressful year,” Mosmeyer said. “We graduated a good chunk of our team last year. Most of our Forensics Team this year is freshmen and sophomores. It just says a lot for our students to be able to pull out a victory like this.” Mosmeyer added that several other students showed a good future for the team. “We had several others get into the finals of the speaking events and we had some that just missed the finals by one point. Some of our test-takers scored well, though they didn’t place. I’m confident they’ll place next year,” Mosmeyer said. Advancing to the final round, but not placing were Shelby Davis in oratory, Melissa Miller in oratory, Stephanie Haas in prose and Blake Tomjack in persuasive speaking. In a separate TAPPS art competition, Holy Trinity placed fifth overall in 2A, a first for the Holy trinity team. Individual awards: Rachel Daheim, first, Crafts; Rebecca Dias, first, Mixed Media; Daheim, third, drawing color; Daheim, fourth, on-site drawing; Daheim, fifth, pottery; Joseph Fritz, sixth, pottery. Honorable Mentions were given to Daheim for on-site photography and seek and Ssketch and to Rachel Hoelscher for On-site Drawing.