Canfield, S. Range, Austintown, Howland, LaBrae soar at Power of the Pen

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

Canfield, South Range, Austintown, Howland and LaBrae middle schools took top honors Saturday in the 2017 Power of the Pen District Tournament at Lordstown High School.

Power of the Pen is an interscholastic creative writing competition among students and school teams throughout Ohio.

Winners of Saturday’s competition advance to the regional contest at Malone University in Canton in March. Winners there advance to the state tournament in May.

About 120 seventh- and eighth-graders who represented the best student writers from 11 schools in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties participated in Saturday’s daylong event.

It featured a series of three rounds of 40-minute essay-writing contests that included such impromptu topics as describing a favorite hangout and setting the scene of a short story on a beach.

Eighth-grade school results from Saturday included first place, Canfield Village Middle School, 1,686 quality points; second, South Range Middle School, 1,643 points; third, Howland Middle School, 1,627 points; and fourth, Austintown Middle School, 1,617 points.

Seventh-grade school winners included first place, South Range Middle, 1,659 points; second place, Austintown Middle, 1,621 points; third place, LaBrae Middle School, 1,587 points; and fourth place, Howland Middle School, 1,617 points.

The Best-of-Round individual winners from the eighth grade included first place, Isabella Davis of St. Charles School in Boardman; second place, Hannah Staffeld of South Range; and third place, Samantha Hudock of Canfield Middle.

Best-of-Round individual winners from the seventh grade included first place, Lori Franklin of Canfield Middle; second place, Ethan Davis of LaBrae Middle; and third place, Samantha Smit of St. Charles.

Top finishers in the regular competition from the eighth grade included first place, Emily Mashqbeh, Canfield Middle; second place, Bridget Fekety, Canfield Middle; third place, Cierra Burchett, LaBrae Middle; fourth place, Christina Haught, Howland Middle; and fifth place Grace Li, Canfield Middle.

Top finishers in the regular competition from the seventh grade included first place, Katie Nichols, South Range Middle; second place, Alivia Franklin, Austintown Middle; third place Sydney Rhodehamel, South Range; fourth place, Cali Joing, South Range; and fifth place, Isabella LaRose, Austintown.