Third grader Ben Updike and fourth grader Nicholas Wells, Falls Church City students, recently won highest honors in this year’s Word Masters Challenge – a national language arts competition entered by approximately 220,000 students annually, which consists of three separate meets held at intervals during the school year.

Competing in the Gold Division of the challenge the pair earned perfect scores in the year’s third meet, held in April. In the entire country 90 third graders and only 161 fourth graders achieved perfect results.