Middle Schoolers A Force In Power Of The Pen Subhead: Teams Capture 1st Place

Both Harding and Garfield Middle Schools performed exceptionally at the District Power of the Pen Writing Competition held on January 23 at St. Joseph Academy. The contest, which has been around for 25 years, honors excellence in creative writing and Lakewood’s middle schools have a long history of excelling in the competition. This year has been no different so far. The Harding 7th and 8th grade teams both took first place in the team standings while the Garfield 7th graders placed second out of the 23 schools that participated in the district tournament.

Leading the way for the middle school scribes was Harding 8th grader Sarah Neff, who captured first place for individuals and also won a “Best of Round” award along with Harding 7th grader Maggie Pizzo.

Out of approximately 125 writers per grade level at the competition, Harding and Garfield placed many writers in the top fifteen:

Grade 7:

2nd place: Jon Poilpre (Garfield)

3rd place: Maggie Pizzo (Harding)

4th place: Kathryn Urban ( Harding)

10th place: Sara Shyte (Garfield)

12th place: Julia Houk (Garfield)

Grade 8:

1st place:  Sarah Neff (Harding)

8th place: Irina Vatamanu  (Harding)

11th place: Nora Varcho  (Harding)

13th place: Zach Sanderson (Garfield)

15th place: Madison Burns (Harding)

Although on average 50% of writers qualify for the Regional Tournament, Lakewood’s teams qualified 83%, including Harding’s entire 8th grade team.  That means the Lakewood City Schools contingent will be 20 strong at the Regional Tournament to be held March 27 in Bedford’s Heskett Middle School. 

The following are the schools’ Power of the Pen team members (includes alternates; regional qualifiers are asterisked): 

Harding, Grade 7: Ann Elaban*, Renee Klann*, Ryan Mitchell Maggie Pizzo*, Laurel Roelle, Sarah Smith*, Kathryn Urban*

Harding, Grade 8: Madison Burns*, Georgia Cole*, Jameson Foran *, Colin Levis, Sarah Neff*, Nora Varcho*, Irina Vatamanu*

Garfield Grade 7: Julia Houk*, Jon Poilpre*, Sam Rothacker, Abby Shuga*, Sara Shyte*, Parker Smith, Carleigh Spence

Garfield, Grade 8: Grace Bader*, Charlotte Link, Grace Hurley*, Lisa Peng*, Kendall King*, Zach Sanderson*,

Harding Coaches: Mary Anne Kinzley, Ruth Pangrace, Laurie Pollner

Garfield Coaches: Martha Exoo, Dan Smith, Karen Stohr