A dozen Western Foothills Regional School Unit 10 students scored so well at last week’s Maine History Day competitions in Augusta they will be traveling to Washington, D.C., in June to compete with youngsters from all over the country.

Any of the participants who took first or second can compete in the nation’s capital.

Five Buckfield Junior-Senior High School girls, Sierra Wescott, Abigail Campbell, Gabrielle Vallee, Megan Salisbury and Michelle Boutin, took first place in a senior group performance on Henry VIII and the English split from Rome.

Three Hartford/Sumner Elementary School sixth-graders, Katie Wescott, Laney Randolph and Kali Litchfield, took first place in the junior performance that focused on the prohibition debate and its roots in Portland.

An individual performance by seventh-grader Reilley Hicks, a student a Buckfield Junior High School, won first place. She portrayed Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and gave her speech on the red scare during the 1950s.

A Dirigo High School freshman, Lindsy Crutchfield, took second place in the senior division for research papers.

Lindsy wrote a 10-page paper advocating marriage for any two people.

Buckfield Junior-Senior High School seventh-graders Jon Vasselian and Leslie Cox took second place in the junior division for creating a website dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Linda Andrews, gifted and talented teacher in the Nezinscot region of RSU 10, said all first- and second-place students, and their families, will likely travel to the University of Maryland for the National History Day competition June 12-16. She said some will fly, others will drive.

Participants are expected to begin fundraising for the $700 per student costs soon.

She said directors of the history competition have arranged to have the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History opened just for student participants during one day of the four-day session.

This year’s topic for competition is: Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, Consequences.

Middle- and high-schoolers from 19 schools from across the state took part in the state competition. About 250 youngsters participated.

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