The moment was not too big Wednesday for Leilani McClure.

With her peers watching and the eyes of three judges fixed squarely on her every expression, the Lehighton Area High School sophomore won the school’s first Poetry Out Loud competition in over a decade.

McClure recited two poems, “And Soul” by Eavan Bolland, and “Enough” by Suzanne Buffam, to top seven of her classmates and advance to the regional competition on Jan. 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Allentown Art Museum.

“It’s like a dream,” McClure said of the opportunity to represent her school. “I’ve been preparing since we found out about this. A lot of the girls in the competition, we stayed after school and gave each other critiques. I recited the poems with pretty much anyone who would listen. I’m sure my siblings are tired of hearing them by now.”

Jennifer Shober Steigerwalt, a Lehighton English teacher, organized the school-level event. She teaches a course called poetry, prose and public speaking, and called this competition a perfect marriage of all three.

“It just seemed perfect for our school to be a part of this because we already had this in our curriculum,” Steigerwalt said. “The students really embodied their poems today and tried to make them as best as they could. They impressed me. It was hard to pick from the classes I taught just to get the students who are here today. There wasn’t a clear winner in every class.”

From the start, McClure had her eyes on the regional competition. Seen walking around with the poetry collection “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman, she also watched the national recitation competition from the past several years.

“I took notes on how the winners presented themselves and recited their poems,” she said. “It’s mainly about confidence, and I’m still trying to find that and build on it.”

All of the Lehighton students presented their poems cleanly, and Steigerwalt took notice of the lack of glitches.

“They knew their stuff and they tried to find meaning,” she said. “They looked at how other literary critics had analyzed the poem to try to get the feel of how they wanted to deliver it.”

McClure said the camaraderie among the Lehighton students helped ease her nerves heading into Wednesday’s event, which was postponed one day due to Tuesday’s school cancellation.

“Everyone was so kind to each other,” she said. “We all adore poetry, and I think that closeness helped me gain confidence in myself and my public speaking. We also learned some exercises in public speaking class that have carried through.”

From the regional competition, students can advance to the state finals. Each winner at the state level receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip with an adult chaperone to Washington, D.C., to compete for the national championship. The state winner’s school receives $500 for the purchase of poetry materials. The first runner-up in each state receives $100, with $200 for their school. At the national finals, a total of $50,000 in awards and school stipends is awarded annually.

“I’m proud of all of our students,” Steigerwalt said. “I hope we took the curriculum and made it something they can take away and enjoy for the rest of their life.”