Gourd vibes: 1,000 students on-hand for annual Pumpkin Drop
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MORGANTOWN -- Gourd vibes were everywhere at the annual West Virginia University Pumpkin Drop.
Sponsored by the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering and the WVU chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, this year's event included 276 registered teams from schools across West Virginia and Pennsylvania with more than 1,000 K-12 students in attendance.
Of the 276 pumpkins dropped from the roof of the Engineering Sciences Building on the Evansdale area of campus, only 23 survived the 11-story fall.
Each of the teams was tasked with creating an enclosure for a pumpkin with a minimum diameter of 10 inches and a maximum weight of 50 pounds to protect it during its descent.
Team 122 from Norwin High School in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, earned first place by landing their intact pumpkin 1 foot from the target. West Virginia teams were close behind. Second place went to Team 7 from East Fairmont Middle School with a target distance of 7 feet 10 inches. Finally, in a tie, Teams 86 and 246 from Mountaineer Middle School and John Marshall High School placed third after landing their pumpkins 11 feet 5 inches from the target.
Each team had their own unique tactics on how to tackle the 11-story plunge. The strategy the first-place team used was surprising to everyone.
"We kind of procrastinated. We really didn't start until about two nights ago, pulled an all-nighter last night, got it done, and, you know, we got the results," said Jaxson Momeyer.