Student Engineers Soar to 2nd and 3rd Place at Wright-Patt Pumpkin Chuck
On Saturday, October 24, Xenia High School engineers made a serious splash — or is that a SPLAT!? — at the annual Pumpkin Chuck competition at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, landing two podium finishes after an intense day of physics, hands-on troubleshooting, and impressive launches.
Representing the Advanced Manufacturing and Design pathway, a Greene County Career Center satellite program, two student-led teams designed, built, and operated custom trebuchets for the event hosted by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Their hard work paid off in a big way, with the teams taking home both 2nd and 3rd place while recording a personal-best launch distance of 280 feet!
Throughout the competition, the students were forced to think on their feet—fixing mechanics, modifying visual alignments, and solving real-time engineering problems under pressure to push their siege engines to maximum capability.
2nd Place — Team 1: The Double Stuffed Oreos
- Malachi Rasnic
- Tyi Workman
- Mouhamed Seck
- Arie Dancy
3rd Place — Team 2: The Buccaneer Siege Squad
- Austin Combs
- Violet Black
- Kennedy Jones
- Devon Andrea
Support Team: Gavin Short, Brody Newkirk
Congratulations to all the participating students for representing their program with exceptional teamwork, engineering grit, and competitive spirit!