Paw Paw High School students won the 14th annual Pumpkin Drop on Friday, Oct. 26, at West Virginia University.

Kati Corbin and Angie Gallik, seniors at the Morgan County school, won the $50 grand prize after their pumpkin fell 11 stories and landed closest to a target on the ground intact. Their entry landed 3 feet, 4 inches from the target.

Connellsville Area (Pa.) High School students placed second with an entry that landed 4 feet, 5 inches from the target. Team members Bobby Rudnik, Angie Pelar, Matt Minerol and Larry Morris will share a $25 prize.

Students from the Albert Gallatin Gifted Program in Point Marion, Pa., finished third with a pumpkin that came to rest 5 feet, 6 inches from the target. Team members Davon Angelo, Maggie Collins, Alex Goodwin, Jennifer Lewellen, Meghan Mace, Amanda McKoy, Ashley Petrone and Derek Cerullo will share a $10 prize.

Ninety-two teams braved cold winds and snow flurries to drop pumpkins from the top of the Engineering Sciences Building, the tallest structure on the Evansdale Campus. Seven of the pumpkins landed without breaking.

“This was another successful Pumpkin Drop,”said Don Lyons, chairman of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, which coordinates the event.”The cold weather didnt spoil the day at all.”

The objective of the autumnal event is to design and build a package that prevents a pumpkin from breaking when it hits the ground. The contest is open to students from WVU and area public schools.

Besides giving kids something fun to do on a cold Friday afternoon, the Pumpkin Drop also raised $920 for the Ronald McDonald House in Morgantown, which provides lodging for families of hospitalized children. The WVU Student Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the competitions sponsor, collected the money through a $10 entry fee.