RON KARAFIN/Courier-Post Rebecca Rousch, 16, of Mantua, works on a piece of art at Clearview Regional High School where she is a sophomore. Rousch and other art students from the school entered their work in a Congressional Art Competition.

With that in mind, students at Clearview Regional High School weren't overconfident about winning the Congressional Art Competition in Millville Friday night, a contest Clearview students swept the two previous years.

Still, they didn't do bad. Clearview senior Casey Heitman took second place and her classmate, Dana Davis, took honorable mention.

Chelsea Reto of Ocean City High School placed first in the competition and Jessica Mounier of Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Newfield took second.

Clearview art teacher Frank Garrett said the main thing for an artist to do is to get out and show their work and his students' art is worth showing, whether they won or not.

He said to sweep a competition - first, second and third place - is freakishly hard to do, especially two years in a row. He did not expect his students to sweep again and neither did they.

"It's like the Super Bowl, winning three years in a row," Garrett said.

Coordinated by individual members of Congress, the Congressional Art Competition is held across the country. The national winner has work displayed at the White House for a year while winners of individual districts have their work on display at the U.S. Capitol.

Sophomore Rebecca Roush, 16, said she was happy just to be involved.

"I'm happy for whoever wins," she said.

A painter, Roush likes acrylics - vibrant, fast-drying colors favored by many artists.

Classmates Kristen Champion, 19, and Danielle Schaffer, 17, were among nearly 20 other Clearview students who entered the competition.

Champion is a photographer who prefers the stylistic freedom of black and white film. Schaffer works in pencil.

"It's neat to take something that's physically there - people, still life, things around the house - and translate them the way I see them," Schaffer said.

Rob Geist, a spokesman for Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., said the competition, now in its 22nd year, is a thrill for the congressman as well as the students.

But he said it's an especially big kick for the winners.

"One of these kids is going to have their art hanging in the capitol building of the United States of America," Geist said. "Second place will hang in Congressman LoBiondo's D.C. office and third place in the congressman's district office in Mays Landing."

In all, nine schools competed in this year's competition: Absegami, Clearview, Egg Harbor Township Middle School, Millville Senior High School, Our Lady of Mercy, Pleasantville, Vineland and Woodstown.