WHITEHOUSE, Ohio — A team of Anthony Wayne Middle School aerospace engineers finished in the top 10 of a national rocketry competition last weekend.
The group of sixth and seventh graders named "The Little Men in Black' visited Washington D.C. on May 20th for the 2023 American Rocketry Challenge.
After some sightseeing, they competed against 99 other teams to see who could have the best controlled rocket launch.
Their first launch of 843 feet was short of the goal, but good enough to qualify them for the second round.
"We knew with our first launch that that second launch would have to be pretty dang good for a good placement in the overall." team member Jarrett Zinz said.
The second launch was much better, hitting their timing window exactly and going 832 feet with a target of 825 feet.
With simple math, the team was confident going into the awards ceremony.
"I'd be happy to get second launch, or even top 25," team member Michael Reed, who was also selected as a student ambassador at the competition, said. "And then when they didn't call us at 11th it just got us super excited."
Team advisor Ryan Reed said their success was unprecedented.
"I thought from that point they'd make the top 25, but I did not think that they would make the 10," he said. "And sure enough..."
"The Little Men in Black" received eighth place over some teams comprised entirely of high school students.
"Seventy percent were high school teams and many of those were junior and senior teams," Ryan said. "So the kids did remarkably by beating the majority of the teams in the country. Finishing top 8, that was just a remarkable finish."
The team received a cash prize of $5,000 and an additional $1,000 for their local sponsor, the American Legion Post 468 in Sylvania.
They were also awarded an additional $500 prize for the best-dressed award.
It's not the prizes or placement the future aerospace engineers will take away from this experience, but the inspiration to keep learning and getting better, they said.
"There were other rockets being set off and launched. And it was really cool to watch and see how the other teams did." team member Bryson McGee said.
With the top 25 finish, "The Little Men in Black" received an invitation to the next NASA Student Launch in Huntsville, Alabama.
But Ryan said the team hasn't made a decision if they will compete in that competition as it means they'd have to start all over from scratch to build a new, larger rocket.