by: Andrew Waner
Pumpkin Chunking is a sport and an annual competition where people from all over the country construct and engineer machines with one goal in mind, to try to hurl or chuck a pumpkin as far as possible. Slingshots, catapults and trebuchets are some of the many designs or styles of machines used for this type of sport.
The event started in 1986 and was primarily held in Delaware. By 2010 the event had acquired over one hundred teams; in 2014 and 2015 the event was not held due to logistical problems. They did have one event in 2016, but a lawsuit from an injury that occurred during the event brought it to an end, according to the Punkin Chunkin website.
In May of this year they decided to revive and relocate the competition to Rantoul, Illinois. The competition was held at the Chanute Airforce Base and it was its first time ever being held in the Midwest.
At the competition, Parkland’s land survey instructor, Korey Allred, served as the faculty advisor for students who were there helping acquire measurements. Allred’s students created Points with x and y coordinates, one where the pumpkin lands and one where the machine itself sits thus giving them extremely accurate measurements.
Three different machine classes set world records this year with Colossal Thunder in the adult trebuchet class hitting 3,377 feet, ETHOS in the adult torsion class making 3,792 feet and Chunk Norris in the adult catapult class reaching 4,091 feet, making them the winners of the 2019 Pumpkin Chunkin Championship.
