CHARLESTON — Sophomore Chris Yoder won first place in sports writing as Uni High earned the state runner-up trophy at the IHSA journalism finals held Saturday at Eastern Illinois University.

Palatine Fremd won the title with 28 points, followed by Uni with 23. No other school reached 20 points. The tournament consisted of 15 events in which students had to complete various journalism assignments on the spot on deadline. The events ranged from news writing and feature photography to info graphics and yearbook theme development.

Sixty-seven schools advanced to the finals from the April 19 sectional round, which was held at seven locations throughout the state. Uni won its sectional championship at the University of Illinois.

Here are the top 10 schools from Saturday's contest:

1. Palatine Fremd — 28
2. UNI HIGH — 23
3. Naperville Central — 19
4. Glenbrook South — 18
5. Homewood-Flossmoor — 16
6. Naperville North — 14
7. New Trier — 13
8. Huntley — 12
9. Oak Lawn Community — 11
10. Plainfield Central — 10
10. Bartlett — 10

Journalism is a single-class IHSA activity — that is, the IHSA does not divide schools into multiple classes based on enrollment. All schools compete against each other regardless of size.

With 247 students, Uni is by far the smallest school in the top 10. Fremd, the champion, has 2,939 students; the next smallest after Uni is Huntley, with 1,654.

Uni students won the following awards in individual events:

• 1st place — Sports Writing
Chris Yoder, sophomore

• 2nd place — Review Writing
Kumars Salehi, senior

• 3rd place — Feature Photography
Chris Nixon, senior

• 3rd place — Yearbook Copy Writing
Michelle Gao, senior

• 3rd Place — Yearbook Layout Double-Page Spread
Linda Ly, sophomore

Sports-writing champ Yoder is the first Uni student to win a state title in the three-year history of the IHSA tournament.

Other members of Uni's state journalism team were senior Jie Han, junior Avanti Chajed, and junior Isaac Chambers. Journalism teacher David Porreca is team coach.

Uni's runner-up performance was the school's best finish at the competition. Last year Uni placed ninth with 12 points. In the inaugural tourney two years ago, Uni failed to crack the top 10, scoring nine points.