For the 26th year, Hastings College hosted the district National History Day: Nebraska district competition. This year’s competition was held Friday, March 16, in Fleharty Educational Center with 161 elementary, junior and senior high school students from a 17-county area competing. Ten schools submitted 73 entries following the 2007 theme: “Triumph and Tragedy in History.”

 Schools represented were: Blue Hill High School, Doniphan-Trumbull Elementary School, Doniphan-Trumbull Junior/Senior High School, Hastings High School, Hastings Middle School, Lawrence-Nelson Junior/Senior High School, Hastings St. Cecilia Junior/Senior High School, Sutton High School, York Middle School, and Loup County Public School.

 Winners advance to state competition at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Neb., Saturday, April 21. National competition will take place at the University of Maryland, College Park, June 10-14.

 Hastings College also provided three scholarships to participants. Winning grand prize ($3,000 over four years) were Cassie Sikes, Hannah Hotovy, Kaylen Fike, Conner Mogul, Jake Weskamp, students at York Middle School. First runners-up ($2,400 over four years) were Kenzie Kloke, Kayla Hurd, and Elizabeth Royston, students at Doniphan-Trumbull Elementary School. Second runner-up ($1,800 over four years) was Patrick Kopke, a student at Hastings High School.

 District coordinators for the event were Dr. Renee Laegreid, assistant professor of history, and Dr. Rob Babock, professor of history.

District Winners
Category: Historical papers
 Junior division:
First place: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Battle of Midway
by Erica Lienemann, Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
  Second place: The Triumph and Tragedy of William H. Bonney
   by Laney Ginn, Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
  Third place: The USS Indianapolis:  Triumph and Tragedy
   by Alex Schendt, Hastings St. Cecilia Middle School
Senior division:
First place: Triumph and Tragedy in History: The Homestead Act
 by Kylie Kinley, Blue Hill High School
Second place:  The Battle of Marathon:  The Battle that Created Western
 Democracy, by Marshall Meeks, Loup County Public Schools
Third place: Joan of Arc, by Autumn Sandoz, Loup County Public
 Schools
Category: Individual exhibits
 Junior division:
  First place: Harriet Tubman:  The Road to Freedom
   by Kyla Sawyers, Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
Second place:   The Tragedy of the Great Fire of London
            by Emily Lienemann, Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
  Third place: Tutankhamen – “Boy King”
   by Lindsey Hoffman, Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
 Senior division:
  First place: The Story of Tatanka:  Triumph and Tragedy
   by Patrick Kopke, Hastings High School
  Second place: Blizzards of 1948 and 1949
   by Ashley Linden, Loup County Public Schools
Category: Group exhibits
 Junior division:
  First place: Pioneers vs. the Oregon Trail
by Kenzie Kloke, Kayla Hurd, and Elizabeth Royston
Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
Second place: Wilma Rudolph:  Triumph and Tragedy – Polio Survivor
 by Olivia Turner and Kirsten Sullivan, Doniphan-Trumbull
       Public School
  Third place:  History’s Mystery: Triumph and Tragedy of the Colony of
   Roanoke
   by Tori Katzberg, Danielle Lemek, and Kayla Hinrichs,
Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
 Senior division:
First place: Agent Orange 
by Josh White and Shane Gideon
            Loup County Public Schools
  Second place: The Atomic Bomb 
   by Alex Petersen, Jason Selko, Travis Lakin, and Cody Brown
   Loup County Public Schools
Category: Group performance
Junior division:
  First place: Tragedy at the Triangle
by Cassie Sikes, Hannah Hovotny, Kaylen Fike, Conner Mogul,
and Jake Weskamp, York Middle School
Second place:  The Origin and Crash of the Stock Market
by Michael Provost, Michelle Harrenstein, Doniphan-Trumbull
Public School
Third place: Abraham Lincoln
   by Jack Hollister and Bridgette Ginn, Doniphan-Trumbull Public
 School
 Senior division:
  First place: Starvation or Obesity? Triumph or Tragedy?
   by Lisa Kraus and Kayla Dunbar, Loup County Public Schools
Category: Individual documentary
Junior division:
 First place: The Bracero Program
  by Sandra Gabriela Terrazas, Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
  Second place: Elvis Presley
by Jeremy Swanek, Doniphan-Trumbull Public School
 Senior division:
  First place: The First Crusade:  Conquest of the Holy Land
   by Alex Vaipa, Lawrence-Nelson Jr./Sr. High School
Category: Group documentary
 Junior division:
First place: The Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy
             by Molly Gruener and Katie Pfeiffer, Doniphan-Trumbull
Public School
Second place:  Alexander the Great
 by Thomas Freetly and Michael Beahm, Hastings Middle School
  Third place: Pearl Harbor
   by Tyler Barton, Cooper Shermer, and Andrew Ritchie
            Loup County Public Schools
Senior division:
First place:Wounded Knee
by Justin Green, Justin Ochsner, and Brooke Steinhauer,
Sutton High School
  Second place:  Jack Johnson
   by Elizabeth Stemper, Jesse Lynch, and Necerian Holston
   Lawrence-Nelson Jr./Sr. High School

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