When the award winners were announced Thursday during the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest, Duluth's Holy Rosary eighth-graders Adam Kneepkens and Billy Menor said they didn't know what to expect.
"It's like a mystery all week," Kneepkens said of the contest events, which were held at the University of Maryland near Washington, D.C., over several days. "But as soon as they announced, 'second place -- from Duluth,' we knew and the screaming started."
"We went crazy," Menor said.
In the junior group exhibit category, Kneepkens and Menor took second out of 110 projects for their research on the invention of balloon angioplasty. It fit this year's theme of innovation in history.
They were only beat out by a group from Oklahoma that did a project on Doppler radar, Menor said.
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"For nationals, our slogan was '12th place or bust,' " Menor said. "But after we got there, we were hoping we would place (in the top three).
"Second was awesome," Kneepkens said.
The pair already is planning for next year's competition with their eye on the first place award. They plan to work together even though Kneepkens will head to ninth grade at Marshall School and Menor to Duluth East.
"We're checking but it looks like we can," Kneepkens said.
The teens spent hundreds of hours working on the balloon angioplasty history project over the school year. Their final product included three 5-foot poster boards with photographs and quotes from big names in cardiology.
They accompanied it with a video that incorporated more photos, and sound bites from the phone interviews they conducted with internationally renowned physicians who were involved with the first FDA approved stents, such as Dr. Richard Schatz and Dr. Gary Roubin, and John Abele, the co-founder of Boston Scientific.
Their work paid off, first earning them the chance to advance to the state competition and then moving to the nationals after taking first place at state.
"It was tons of fun so we have to do it again," Menor said.
