OGDEN — Half of the high schools participating in WSU’s Quest festival last week were from Davis County, with students participating in poetry, storytelling, narrative and other literary contests.

Davis, Syracuse, Northridge, NUAMES Academy and West Point Junior High School all had students participating in Quest this year. The festival was hosted by Weber State University’s Arts and Humanities College and English department.

“The Quest festival is a means of celebrating the talents and skills of high school students proficient in the language arts,” said WSU Quest director Shannon Butler.

Quest is about focusing on the arts with 19 different categories students can compete in. The contests ranged from performance-based to writing and test knowledge.

The contests included Shakespeare monologue, scene and Reader’s Theater as well as poetry recitation, storytelling, informative speaking personal narrative, spelling, editing and vocabulary.

Weber State University professors, college students and teachers who have expertise in dramatic and visual arts, debate and composition judged this year’s competition.

The festival is a statewide competition that is in its fifth year of operation. This year, the Utah Council of Teachers of English also hosted the conference.

Winners from this year’s Quest contest include:

Davis High School winners Hannah Lantz for editing (first place), Rebekah Deppe for Shakespeare monologue (second place), Alina Trang for vocabulary (second place) and Alicia Palmer for personal narrative writing (third place).

Northridge High School winners Katelyn Rawson and Maria Hyer for literature (first and second places), Logan Tarantino for movie trailer (first place), Katelyn Rawson for poetry essay (third place), Joshua Jackson and Hilary Roberg for language arts poster (each first place), Joshua Jackson for Shakespeare monologue (first place), Hannah Nielsen for storytelling (first place), Sarah Hong for character sketch writing (third place) and Matt Dean for poetry writing (third place).

NUAMES winners Isaac Wilson for book cover (first place), Calli Seneff, Josh Merrell and Lydia LeClair for informative speaking (first, second and third places), Chelsey Gruber, Kristen Childers, Mandy Geilman and Maria Leon for movie trailers (each second place), Calli Seneff for poetry recitation (first place), Kristen Childers and Maria Leon for poetry slam (each second place), Isaac Wilson for language arts poster (second place), Josh Merrell for storytelling (third place), Chelsey Gruber for character sketch writing (second place) and Ericka Loertscher for persuasive writing (third place).

Syracuse High School winners Heather Downing, Jessica Stoddard and Larissa Myers for editing (first, second and third places), Amanda Mills and Hailey Wright for literature (each third place), Ashley Widdison and Meagan Ryan for reader’s theater (each third place), Lindsey Moss and Sarah Wilburn for Shakespeare scene (each first place), Alyxandra Bolton for spelling bee (third place), Lindsey Moss for vocabulary (third place), Shantel Beaman for persuasive writing (second place) and Aleshia Meinzen and Megan Rasmussen for poetry writing (first and third places).

sroberts@davisclipper.com