When it comes to historical presentations, the Jefferson High School National History Day Competition team has proven it is among the top 10 student researchers in the nation.

Rising seniors Clara Logue, Sarah Beggs and Josh Whitfield traveled to College Park, Md., this week to participate in the National History Day Competition and will return this weekend as state champions.

"Out of 106 senior group documentaries, we placed eighth in the nation," Logue said. "We also received the award for outstanding state entry for Georgia."

The national competition included student entries in various formats, including documentaries, live performances, written papers and exhibits. Officials say more than 2,000 students participated.

Like the other competitors, the Jefferson group’s documentary, "Upton Sinclair: The Man Who Showed America to Herself," won top honors in regional and state competitions before being admitted into the national competition, which was held on the University of Maryland campus.

Competition began Sunday; the team was notified Tuesday that its documentary had made it to the final round of judging held Wednesday. The awards ceremony for the competition was broadcast live Thursday on The History Channel’s Web site, www.history.com.

"It was pretty astonishing to think that we were recognized out of so many other great documentaries," Logue said. "It was really gratifying to go on to the (final) level of competition."

This is only the second year for Jefferson’s history day team. Logue has been a member since the beginning, but this is the first year for teammates Beggs and Whitfield.

As is evident by the number of awards the group won, the students produced a superior documentary. However they aren’t content with letting last year’s records be the final page in their history books.

"The consensus is that we are all pretty ready to start working on next year’s entry," Logue said. "The theme next year is completely different, so we’ll have to create something new. We’ve got the judging sheet and we know what we need to do to improve, so we’re looking forward to getting started."