A number of students around Lawrence County have earned accolades this last month:

• Most prominent in the headlines is the Ironton High School Fighting Tigers football team, who defeated Liberty Center won the state championship at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton on Dec. 7. The win, the third state title for the school, was its first in 35 years. The team brought pride to the community and was honored on Monday by the City of Ironton for their achievement with a parade through downtown.

• The cheerleading teams at both Fairland High School and Chesapeake High School, who won at the UCA Bluegrass Regionals at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky on Nov. 23 and both are now set to take part in the UCA’s national completion in Orlando, Florida in February. It was Fairland’s third win in a row at the regional event, while for Chesapeake, it marked a return to national competition after two decades.

• Joseph Keffer, a Chesapeake fifth grader, who won the Lawrence County Spelling Bee on Dec. 9. It was Keffer’s first time competing in the county bee, open to fourth through eighth grades, and he is now set to take a test to compete at the district bee in the spring. Keffer added to his impressive month this week by winning as fifth grade champion in the county Math Pong tournament on Monday (We will have full coverage of that event in this weekend’s Tribune).

We congratulate all of these students for their hard work and wish them well going forward with more achievements.