Led by District champion Kent Adams, Harding 8th graders racked up another first-place Power of the Pen finish as the team beat out 44 other teams at the March 16 Pen Regional tournament held at St. Joseph Academy. Adams placed 3rd overall out of 150 writers and also won a “Best of Round” award for his story “Sea Sickness.” Garfield 7th grader Elizabeth Shuga placed 8th overall Isabel Ostrowski earned an honorable mention for the 7th graders.
Although Adams was the only Harding writer to place, the depth of the 8th grade team helped propel the team to victory. “We had a huge advantage having six of our team make it to Regionals,” said 8th grade Harding coach Ruth Pangrace.
Joining Adams at the Regional tournament were Lauren Klann, Elena Mulready, Caleigh Sheehan, Abbey Stone and Julia Neff. Harding 7th graders qualifying were Sophia Parker, Saige Rook and Claire Walkosak. Joining Shuga for the Garfield 7th grade team was Isabel Ostrowski and Sarah Bene. Garfield 8th graders competing were Ian Bell, Abigail Iler, Muayad Shahin and Grace Werner.
Adams and Shuga are guaranteed to move on to the state competition to be held at the end of May at the College of Wooster. More than 700 writers, the top 10% of all competitiors, will vie for the title of best writer at Wooster. The teams will find out by the end of the week which other writers have qualified for the state tournament.
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The creative writing contest is made up of three rounds. In each round, competitors must compose a narratives in response to a prompt such as "Leftovers-Describe some you are left with” and "If you can laugh at yourself, nobody else will beat you to it." The writers have 40 minutes to complete each narrative.