PITTSBURGH — A seventh-grade student tied for first place in a high school Japanese speech contest.

Joshua Burd, a student at Knoch Middle School, competed with students from 10 high schools to take the prize in the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center speech contest March 7. Burd was competing in the Level 2 category and was required to give a speech.

Burd is a private student of Masami Schaper, the Japanese instructor at Butler Senior High School.

Several students from Schaper's Butler class also received accolades in the contest.

At Level 1, a poster contest, Nicholas Furar, a freshman, and Catherine Wilbert, a sophomore, took second place.

At Level 2, William Swarwer, a senior, and Alyssa Fehl, a sophomore, took second place.

And at Level 4, Christian Bruggeman, a senior, took second place.

More than 70 students competed in the contest at the William Pitt Union.