Cove students leave legacy at regional history day contest
Special to Leader-Press
AUSTIN, TX—For Matthew Lanning and Tyler Murphy, it is all on the line this year. This is their last shot. Time is running out. The eighth graders are competing for the last time as junior high school students in Texas History Day, but the odds are strong that they will go out at the top of their middle school careers.
The two boys along with seventh grader John Gorres presented a group exhibit entitled the Atoms for Peace in the Cen-Tex Regional History Day Contest in Austin and won second place advancing the trio to the state contest in Austin next month.
“This is about how President Eisenhower wanted to use nuclear energy for peace and not for harm or violence,” Gorres said. “We chose this topic because Tyler is very interested in military history and Matthew and I really love science. We thought this would be a great for us all to work on together."
None of the three boys are new to competing in the history contests. In last year’s National History Day Program competition in College Park, Maryland, Gorres and a different team presented a documentary on the Apollo-Soyuz Mission and fellow students Matthew Lanning and Tyler Murphy displayed their exhibit on the Uranium Rush at the national contest after sweeping the Texas competition, said CCJHS history teacher and adviser Catherine Sharbeno.
“Their projects were chosen from 70,000 entries to represent Texas in the national contest. They went up against the 50 states and several territories,” Sharbeno said. “Unfortunately, they did not bring home a place medal. But Matthew and Tyler’s project was chosen as an outstanding entry from Texas.”
Sharbeno is coaching the students again this year and has several new students in the group showing promise and already qualifying for the state contest in April. Sixth graders Elliot Lowman and Mary Ritchie are not only new to life as junior high students but also to the history day competitions. The pair researched The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
“I wanted to research World War II because there was a lot of action and people really took a stand,” Lowman said. “I am looking forward to moving on to the second round and seeing the other competitors and am excited to represent Central Texas."
Ritchie said she and her partner both learned that they really like World War II history.
“I learned that people living in the Warsaw Ghetto would mostly stand down to the Nazis, but there were also lot of smuggling operations inside of the ghetto,” Ritchie said. “I can't wait for the next round. I hope we make it to the state competition."
In total, 14 students from CCJHS qualified for the state contest coached by Sharbeno and four from CCHS will compete at the state level coached by teacher Linda Sharp.
Copperas Cove Junior High and Copperas Cove High School students competed in the Cen-Tex Regional History Day Competition in Austin. The 1st and 2nd place winners will go on to the Texas History Day competition on April 29th in Austin. The following students qualified for the state contest.
From Copperas Cove Junior High:
6th Graders
Emma Morris- 1st place Individual Documentary
Elliott Lowman and Mary Ritchie- 2nd place Group Website
7th Graders
Anna Beamesderfer and Lyric Richardson- 1st place Group Documentary
Ariel Draper and Mikayla Sheon- 2nd place Group Documentary
Allen Dominguez- 3rd place Individual Exhibit
Justin Delgado and Will French- 1st place Group Exhibit
John Gorres- 2nd place Group Exhibit
Allyssa Kimball- 3rd place Individual Paper
8th Graders
Matthew Lanning and Tyler Murphy- 2nd place Group Exhibit
Copperas Cove High School
Chris Armstrong, Emma Bodisch, Gabriella Gorres, and Noah Luna
Gabriella Gorres- 2nd place Senior Individual Paper
Chris Armstrong, Emma Bodisch, and Noah Luna- 1st Senior Group Documentary.