Pumpkins fly at local competition

Fierce competition heated up the chilly air in Blackfoot, as the Wild Adventure Corn Maze hosted its first-ever pumpkin chucking contest.

Richard Johnson, who owns the corn maze, said he modeled the competition after the popular game, Angry Birds. However, this required a bit more muscle than a mobile phone game for the three teams.

“We’ve just been working on it for the last two or three weeks,” said Blackfoot High School student Chase James, who had his whole family and his boss on hand to help implement his towering trebuchet.

James’s menacing contraption launched itself to an easy victory in the distance and speed competions, sending pumpkins flying as far as 586 feet and as fast as 52 miles per hour.

The accuracy prize went to another student at Blackfoot, Kohl Bingham, whose contraption missed the target by only 2 feet.

“Ours is the best,” Bingham said. “We put a lot of time into it, and it’s pretty big.”

While the kids excelled in distance, accuracy and speed, Team Broken Rock would have won for best dressed.

“We’re in our medieval garb because this is a medieval siege weapon,” said Steven Willden, who was dressed as a pirate.

Had there been a prize for closest call, our news team would have taken that one.

The team with the best combined distance, speed and accuracy got to take home the top prize of $150.