To qualify for state, the students and their projects had to place in the top three of their category at the regional. Seven Western Slope schools involving 134 students competed in the middle school division.
Meeker competed in four of the possible nine categories, taking 25 students and 12 projects. Olathe advanced seven projects to state, Aspen and Delta middle schools advanced three projects each, while Orchard Mesa and Craig advanced two each.
Barone Middle School placed 16 of the 27 student qualifiers going to state from the Grand Junction regional competition.
Those students who created an exhibit went through two rounds of judging. In the morning, they were interviewed by the judges, finalists were chosen and then, in the afternoon, just their exhibits were judged.
A few of the Barone students made the finals but then did not qualify for state.
Luis Villalpando and Victor Arias, with their “Pancho Villa” display, moved into the regional finals for group exhibit while Allison Moon was an individual finalist with her “Lewis and Clark” display.
The 16 Barone students moving on to the state competition and their subjects are:
Individual Exhibit: first place to Savana May for “Harriet Tubman;” and third place to Allie Willey for “Emily Murphy.”
Group Exhibit: first place to Gracie Bradfield, Kassie Luce and Charlie Day for “Anne Boleyn;” and second place to Krissie Luce and Lila Klinglesmith for “Florence Nightingale.”
Group Website: first place to Kenzie Turner and Kale Burke for “General Patton;” and third place to Alex Murray and Kallie McCain for “Andrew Carnegie.”
Group Documentary: first place to Briar Meszaros and Pake Burke for “The United Nations;” and second place to Tori Lasker, Abby Rosendahl and Kylee Bradford for “Nelson Mandela.”
Barone teacher Kris Casey and several parents accompanied the Meeker competitors to Grand Junction.
“It was really fun to watch how proud each kid was of their project,” Casey said.
The students are allowed to make improvements to their projects before going to state.
Vincent V. Patarino, Jr., an assistant professor of history at Colorado Mesa University, was coordinator of the Grand Junction regional competition.
