Competing for the seventh year in a row, the Dark Falcons high school pumpkin chucking team took first place in the Pumpkin Fling, Long Island’s annual championship pumpkin catapult contest held on Oct. 29 at the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center in Yaphank.

Led by coach Bruce Sander, the skilled students – from eighth-graders to seniors – hurled the 3-5-pound gourds more than 1,000 feet with their own trebuchet, having used physics, design and construction techniques to construct this medieval siege machine. The team also provided demonstrations at Robert Frost and May Moore.