Moore County students claimed five first-place honors in the area poster, essay and speech contests sponsored by the Soil and Water Conservation program in North Carolina. One student picked up second place, another placed third in the contests.

Winners of the Moore County contests competed on March 10 in the area contests held at the Ira L. McDowell Center in Asheboro. The five first-place winners go next to the state competition.

First-place winners are: Hannah Bradford, third grade, Sandhills Farm Life School, in the poster contest; Zach Duthie, sixth grade, West Pine Middle School, poster contest; Joshua Lett, sixth grade, West Pine, essay; Nikita Chintalapudi, seventh grade, home schooled, speech contest; and Abbi Middleton, eighth grade, Middleton Academy Homeschool, speech contest.

Dalton Heinauer, a fifth-grader at Sandhills Farm Life, placed second in the poster contest, and Rosalind Greisz, a fourth-grader at Sandhills, was a third-place winner in the poster contest.

Jeanette Fuller, administrative secretary for the Moore Soil and Water Conservation District, said the local students competed against winners from 10 other counties. Each winner received a medal and prize money.

"We are so proud of them," Fuller said.

The Moore Conservation District annually sponsors poster, essay and speech contests in local schools. Winners are honored at an awards dinner, when essay and speech winners orally present their works and the posters are displayed.