MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- In the end yesterday, when countless seeds and pounds of orange entrails littered the tarp, when dump trucks had been called to remove the mound of plastic, cardboard and organic debris, bragging rights did not go to one of West Virginia University's up-and-coming engineering students.

Rather, first place in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources' 16th annual Pumpkin Drop went to a group of fifth-graders from the Morgantown area. The 10-year-olds called their entry the "H-Bomb" and, to be sure, it blew away the competition, not only surviving an 11-story fall from the roof of the Engineering Sciences Building but coming closest to the target on the ground.

In all, 108 teams packed pumpkins into cushioned garbage cans, cardboard boxes, rocket-shaped devices and other contraptions designed to protect the gourds on their Halloween descent. Only 14 pumpkins landed intact, making them eligible for the accuracy portion of the contest.

The fifth-graders, who entered as Cheat Lake Home School, landed their padded plastic barrel 1 foot 9 inches from the target, about twice as close as the second-place finishers, a team from Magnolia High School in New Martinsville, W.Va. Third place went to a team from Connellsville Area High School in Fayette County.

Some entrants rigged their devices with canvas or plastic parachutes to soften the landing. But that was a mistake given the light wind, said Garrett Smith, one of the triumphant fifth-graders who's home-schooled by his mother, Regina.

"You saw what happened to the parachute ones," he said. "Most of them drifted off course."

Garrett and teammates Jeremy Stanley, Kazuki Negri, Aaron Manley and Christopher Litton spent months perfecting their entry, winning with a combination of science and boyish ingenuity. It was the fourth time the group had entered the contest.

"They learned from their previous three attempts," Regina Smith said.

The contest began years ago as an engineering department egg drop, but that got stale and easy. Because they're heavier and more varied in form and density, pumpkins present a greater challenge, said John Kuhlman, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and adviser to the student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The contest eventually was opened to elementary, middle school and high school students, setting up a spirited rivalry with the university students. A local radio disc jockey razzes Kuhlman each year about how often the younger students prevail.

"The engineering students try to get too sophisticated with it," said Adam Feathers, a freshman mechanical engineering major from Newburg, W.Va.

The contest gives students the opportunity to test principles of physics, mathematics and various kinds of engineering. Yesterday's pumpkin-droppers may be tomorrow's designers of bridges, buildings and shipping containers.

The event is a recruiting tool for WVU. And Heather Johnson, president of the student engineering group, said about $1,200 in entry fees will be donated to Ronald McDonald House.

Still, the event has a surreal quality, particularly because it occurred on Halloween this year and some of those wandering the drop site wore costumes.

"It's an odd event," Kuhlman acknowledged. "It is unique and best experienced in person."

One by one, pumpkins with such monikers as "Godzilla's Baby," "Mr. Happy" and "Dodo Bird" were pushed off a plank atop the Engineering Sciences Building, and they floated, sailed or thudded to the tarp-covered ground before an oohing audience estimated at a few hundred.

Qualifying pumpkins had to meet size requirements. Contestants were not permitted to inject anything into the pumpkins, to freeze them or to use any kind of electrical apparatus.

But that left the door wide open.

Some contestants made crumple zones of foam and aluminum and attached them to the exterior of their contraptions; others packed containers full of popcorn, peanuts, foam, newspaper, seat cushions, balloons, tissue paper, stuffed animals -- anything to absorb the impact.

One team -- engineering majors Lee Samuelson of Lebanon, Pa., Mike Butera of New Kensington and Jonathan Goldsmith of Greenwood, W.Va., and art major Kenneth Weaver of Scarbro, W.Va. -- dropped a pumpkin in a newspaper-filled cage made of plastic pipe. The T-shaped joints were supposed to absorb the impact, but ... splat!

"We know who to blame ... It's the art student," said Migri Prucz, an engineering school staff member who helped emcee the event.

Feathers and his team -- engineering students Justin Peaslee of Kingwood, W.Va., and Greg Thomas of Reading, Berks County -- dropped a pumpkin in a wood-and-cardboard contraption resembling a large badminton birdie. The foam inside and 171/2 pounds of weights at the narrow bottom were supposed to absorb the impact, but ... splat!

The winning fifth-graders had all the angles covered. Inside the plastic barrel, they rested the pumpkin on an inner tube surrounded with foam. On the outside, the barrel was outfitted with pop-can crumple zones on bottom and top--insurance in case the barrel turned over in flight.

The group had made scale models of the entry and dropped them from a window at Garrett's home. The students learned that pop cans placed on their sides withstand more pressure than those stood upright.

"We did crush tests," Garrett said.