On March 14, the annual Three Rivers German Day competition hosted by AATG took place at Washington and Jefferson College. The Bethel Park students entered a number of categories including Poetry Recitation, Fiction Writing, Poetry Writing, various art categories, and the culture bowl.

The total collection of awards by the end of the day was seven. This was the most of any school.

Senior Jason Turske took home first place in poetry recitation for his reciting of the poem “Wie freu’ ich mich der Sommerwonne.” This was Turske’s second consecutive year winning this competition.

The first-place awards continue into writing, where junior Jacob Kalogeris was the winner of the fiction writing competition for his original short story. Kalogeris’ story followed a young boy who hopes to escape over the Berlin wall to reunite with his father.

Sophomore Nathan Disori won the poetry writing competition for his original poem. He wrote about the difficulties of learning and balancing your time.

Another first-place award came in the art categories, as junior Chloe Gorman took home the top spot in the folkloric arts and crafts section. Her handmade, ’70s-inspired Bavarian Drindl with matching pants blew away the competition.

In addition, Turske and Kalogeris, along with freshmen Sadie Nelson and John Busalacchi, sophomore Cameron Wallace and juniors Jack Edner and Parker Nelson finished second in the musical performance category for their rendition of German rock song ‘Mach die Augen zu.”

“We’re very happy with our placing since we finished third last year and our competition was high,” said Kalogeris, “We practiced every Thursday with after school and we had no sheet music. We went by ear over time and we came up with something that worked.”

Bethel Park’s culture bowl team finished third. This team was captained by senior Cody Hendrych-Bondra and included Hertzel, Disori, and Busalacchi.

Congratulations to all involved in the competition!