Smith Takes 1st Place at Power of the Pen Regional Tournament

Greenville Junior High School eighth grader Christal Smith took the First Place Trophy for Individual Scores home at the Power of the Pen Regional Tournament in Minster Saturday. She qualifies to compete in the POP State Tournament in Columbus in April. This is the first Power of the Pen Tournament in which she has competed. It is only the second year that Greenville JHS has competed in POP tournaments in recent years. GHS Junior, Elizabeth Horner, coached the Greenville team with Ruby Horner serving as the Advisor. Several hundred students from more than a dozen schools competed. Students are required to compose three narratives from specific "prompts." They are allowed 40 minutes to complete each assignment, after which judges rate them, then send them to a different set of judges who score them for total points. In addition to recording individual and team scores, the papers considered the best in each round are sent to "Best of Round" judges to choose the top narrative for that round.