Students place second in trebuchet contest

Dave Young, left, Gubinder Sran and Mark Snyder, students at Erie 1 BOCES Harkness Career & Technical Center, prepare to sling a pumpkin in their manmade trebuchet during the distance contest held at the Great Pumpkin Farm Oct. 29. The school won second place with a distance of 252 feet.

Students of Project Lead the Way engineering program at Erie 1 BOCES Harkness Career & Technical Center placed second in the Great Pumpkin Farm's Trebuchet Contest for their medieval trebuchet design.

The class designed and built a trebuchet to compete against approximately 12 other area high schools on Oct. 29. The challenge was to see who could catapult a pumpkin the farthest distance.

A trebuchet is an ancient catapult mechanism which was designed to throw large boulders at an opposing enemy fortress. These machines use physics and engineering to toss pumpkins nearly 500 feet or more. The trebuchet designed by Harkness students reached the distance of 252 feet. Holland High School exceeded that mark by 18 feet.

Team members included: Ryan Willett of Amherst; Keith Feind and Rosalee Metzger of Cleveland Hill; John Certo and Matt Lang of Grand Island; Ryan Bonetto of Hamburg; Dave Young, Mark Snyder and Carl Desalvo of Kenmore East; Mario Capasso of Lackawanna and Gubinder Sran of Williamsville North.