“We Are The Champions” by Queen was certainly an appropriate song to play on Gretna East Media’s van ride back from the 2024 Class B State Journalism Championship as they were named the 2024 champions today, April 22.

“It’s insane that as a first-year school, we took home the whole competition,” sophomore Brayden Hansen said. 

This marks the first State Journalism Championship win in 25 years for Gretna Public Schools and the first Journalism Championship in Gretna East history.

“They announced our school and there was just an uproar of cheering and screaming,” sophomore Leena Macklin said.  

Together, 11 students qualified a total of 18 entries to be able to compete in today’s contest. 

“We gave the judges our best and went into the competition already grateful for where we were,” sophomore Reese Beery said. 

Overall there were four first places, five second places, three third places, two fourth places, two sixth places and one seventh place.

Gallery • 20 Photos

Ranae Duncan

As Gretna East's name was called as first place in the 2024 NSAA State Journalism Championship, sophomore Madeline Petrick and sophomore Kate Gudenrath embrace.

“When we got to second, I didn’t know what to do,” sophomore Laci Smith said. “My face felt hot and my eyes were tearing up. As a team, Natalie, Kate and I worked so hard to get to where we got today.”

The Guardian yearbook placed second in Yearbook Theme Development and junior Natalie Hayhurst placed sixth in Yearbook Theme Copy Writing.

“We worked so hard first semester to get it perfect and now our hard work paid off,” Hayhurst said.

For The Wingspan, the staff earned 16 awards altogether.

“The feeling was unreal,” Beery said. “Winning as a team and as an individual is a blessing and I’m so proud of all of us.”

After each staff member received their individual award, one award remained. For each place in an individual competition, students are awarded different points for their school. Those points are tallied and schools are ranked based on the total. The fourth, third and second place schools were announced, leaving one spot left.

“We joked about a Gretna East sweep but as they announced the overall scores we all just turned to each other totally confused,” Macklin said.

Gretna East was announced as the 2024 first-place winners. Scotus Central Catholic High School was named runner-up after a three-year win streak. Gretna East Media is truly grateful for this experience and the awards.

“I’m proud of what Gretna East Media has done this year and hopefully we can show up next year and give our best again,” Beery said.