Win or lose — Island Destination Imagination teams excel
Published 2:00 pm Thursday, March 12, 2015
The Mercer Island School District (MISD) sent 16 teams to the 2015 Destination Imagination (DI) Seattle-Metro Regional Tournament on Feb. 28 at Bellevue High School. Four teams advanced and will compete at the state tournament in East Wenatchee on March 28.
“All 16 of our teams are to be commended for competing at this level. I am happy to celebrate their efforts and to congratulate The Seven Sparks, The Illuminati, Team Improv, and The Six Directions, who will continue to the state competition,” said MISD Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano. “Their passions, talents, and creativity not only serve them well academically, but these are 21st century skills that will also serve them well in their future careers.”
The Seven Sparks earned first place in the elementary Technical challenge, in which they were required to build a creature that could complete three separate tasks. Last year they earned a trip to the state tournament as The Six Sparks, this year adding a seventh team member.
The Illuminati earned first place in the middle school Technical challenge. Team Improv won the elementary Lose to Win challenge and The Six Directions won the middle school Lose to Win challenge. All four teams will compete in the state competition.
“Congratulations to all of our Mercer Island teams for representing us so well,” said adviser Mark Headlee. “We had teams representing all five schools and students in grades three through 12.”
Trevor Gullstad received special recognition at the tournament as the first senior in the Mercer Island DI program.
“We are very proud of Trevor’s dedication and leadership. He has served as an inspiration and great role model for all of our younger students,” said Headlee.
The four teams going to the state tournament are:
The Seven Sparks in the elementary Technical challenge
Members: Anantika Mannby, Andrew Yeh, Vishy Kamalapuram, Aidan Klein, Sai Pipavath, Agnes Mar, and Thorin Finch
The Illuminati in the middle school Technical challenge
Members: Andrew Motz, Derek Wang, William Lacrampe, Steven Perzia, Wesley Ho, Landon Schmidt-Warnecke, and Max Zhao.
Team Improv in the elementary Lose to Win challenge
Members: Tyler Langley, Sam Shroff, Derek D’Souza, Ryan Huang, Daniel Bereza, Keegan Wang, and Eliot Geer.
The Six Directions in the middle school Lose to Win challenge
Members: Katie Stoops, Joyce Zhang, Will Rogers, Kevin Wang, Arjun Piplani, Wes Kim.
