Fountain Hills High School might have a new world record holder on its hands as Cameron Ribail looks to overthrow a watermark that was set not too long ago, firing 19 potatoes through a tennis racquet in three minutes.

Each year, Dr. Paul McElligott hosts a Guinness World Record attempt for local students and, this year, 80 students from Mrs. Robinson’s science classes and 20 of Dr. McElligott’s engineering and AP students competed for the top spot.

An FHHS student, Garret Sweetland, broke the world record for firing potatoes through a racquet in 2011 with a total of 17 spuds.

This year, it looks like another local student may have broken the record again, Cameron Ribail.

This year’s trials were held Wednesday, May 7, on the high school campus. With preliminary runs going throughout the early afternoon, finals were hosted beginning at 3 p.m. with the students showing the most promise of shattering the record taking one final run.

Students spent part of their semester constructing air-powered potato launchers, determining the design and construction of the devices in the hopes of creating the most efficient launcher.

For the Guinness World Record attempt, slow motion footage was taken of each of the final runs. McElligott said he had about 16 gigabytes worth of footage to work through but, at present, three students were contenders for a new world record and it looks like Ribail may have actually done it. All materials must be verified by Guinness before a judgment can be ruled.

Based on naked eye evaluations, though, it looked as though Brady Hartman managed to launch 19 potatoes in three minutes while both Wyatt Carlowe and Cameron Ribail were looking at 20 each.

After further analysis, however, it turned out that only Ribail had managed to break the former record of 17, edging past Sweetland by just two potatoes.

“The potatoes were flying so fast, it was tough to tell the results without slow motion video,” McElligott explained.

“Only one student met and exceeded the record by one potato. We feel this is a new record. Over the summer a notebook will be assembled and submitted to Guinness World Records in London for the final determination.”

McElligott said he would like to thank high school Principal Tom Brennan, Superintendent Tom Lawrence and the parents of his and Robinson’s students for making this event a success once again.

“I would also like to thank James Phillips of MP&E Photography,” McElligott said.

“Mr. Phillips has been a key part in slow motion videography for the last three attempts.”