A Whitefish High School junior took first place in an international marketing competition recently.

Sydney Gillette won the Principles of Hospitality and Tourism competition at the 2010 DECA International Career Development Conference in Louisville, Ky.

She beat out hundreds of other students for the win.

The event requires students to demonstrate basic marketing knowledge through a competency exam.

Students also had to apply marketing concepts to real-life business situations in a case study.

Gillette had 10 minutes to prepare her response to the case study and then present her ideas to a judge.

To make it to the conference, students had to finish first or second in their events at state level. Eight other Whitefish High students also competed at the international conference.

Willie Roche, Becca Strellnauer, Alex Fuehrer and Jacob Washer competed in Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making; Jack Hyer and Jake Walp competed in Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making; Miranda Myers competed in Leadership Development Academy; and Bailey Chauner competed in Senior Management Institute.

DECA is an international association of marketing students with co-curricular activities for high school students in the United States, Canada, Guam, Germany, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.