St. Francis Catholic School won the 15th annual College of Engineering and Mineral ResourcesPumpkin Drop Friday (Oct. 25) at West VirginiaUniversity.

The Morgantown parochial schools protected pumpkin remained intact after falling 11 floors from the top of the EngineeringSciencesBuilding on WVU s Evansdale Campus. It landed 2 feet, 1 inch from the target on the ground, closest of all the pumpkins that did not break.

St. Francis students Vincent DeGeorge, Riley Dunn, Matthew Gutta and Corey Jones will share the $50 prize.

The fall fruit fling is an engineering challenge to design a container that will protect the pumpkin as it free falls. The participant whose pumpkin lands closest to the target without going splat wins. Eighty-one teams ranging from public school and WVU students to University employees participated. Five pumpkins survived.

A team from MorgantownLearningAcademy placed second, with its pumpkin landing 7 feet, 2 inches from the target. The team, which won $25, included Nick Connelly, Anna Driver, Brian Robinson and Faith Tessa Wiegand.

Third place and $10 went to a team from FrazierHigh School in Perryopolis, Pa. The protected pumpkin dropped by Ben Kokoszka and Ross English came to rest 12 feet, 2 inches from the bulls eye.

The WVU Student Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which sponsored the event, raised $810 from entry fees for the Ronald McDonald House.