Germantown High School Latin students know that the so-called "dead" language is alive and well right along with its civilization, so they thought they would try it out on a sunny spring day at C.O. Franklin Park with their teacher Barbara Hardin.

The students from beginning Latin to the advanced placement level competed in a contest to see whose catapult could shoot the farthest, which could shoot with the most accuracy, and -- just for fun -- which was the "beauty queen" of catapults.

The competition was limited to "onagers," a type of catapult that shot large boulders the length of a football field in Roman times. Instead of boulders, these catapults shot small stones up to 106 feet in distance.

In the distance contest, winners were: first place, John Barger; second place, Alex Babakus; and third place, Erin Parker.

In the accuracy competition the places were first place, Erin Parker; second place, Alex Babakus; and third place, Andrew Phillips.

In the "Beauty Queen" contest, Anna Abernathy won first place, Steven Geyer took second and Jesse Edwards came in third.