The Mercer Island High School Destination Imagination team “Syntax Folly” placed third in the technical challenge at the recent Destination Imagination Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn.

This is the first Global Finals trophy for MIHS.

Team members are Andrew Motz, Derek Wang, Alex White, William Lacrampe, Ethan Torok, Damien Snyder and Nico Galvin. Their coach is West Mercer Elementary teacher Mark Headlee.

Destination Imagination (DI) is an educational program in which student teams solve a variety of open-ended challenges and present their solutions at tournaments. The Technical Challenge prompts students to complete tasks by using engineering, research, strategic planning and related skills.

Also finishing in the top 20 at Global Finals were the Mercer Island High School scientific team of Sophia Ristuben, Justin Skene, Ichiro Nakata, Ryan Shobe, Oliver Schaaf, and Vinny Ricci, and the Islander Middle School Engineering Team of Keegan Wang, Anantika Mannby, Aditi Mannby, Tyler Langley, Daniel Marcus, Sidh Shroff, and Eliot Geer.

“I am very proud of all of these teams. They represented Mercer Island Schools well,” Headlee said in a press release. “Each team kept working on its solution until it was time to present. All of our teams have been remarkable proponents of creative problem solving.”