The Duct Tape Dudes, the Lancer Destination Imagination team won their regional competition last Saturday, March 12. They competed against one other team in their category, the technical challenge Pace of Change.
“We have a lot of things to work on, but this was a good start and I’m proud of how our team performed,” freshman Ian Goodspeed said.
The team has been together since third grade, but this year new members Hannah Brown and Gillian Lynch joined returning members Ian Goodspeed, Jillian Fitzgibbons, Jimmy Fitzgibbons, and Coach Bill O’ Connor. The team of all freshman beat the team from Pinkerton to secure a spot at the State Competition.
“This year was harder because we lost some teammates from last year,” Jillian Fitzgibbons said, “but we gained Hannah and Gillian, two DI veterans, and we really came together to come up with a solid solution.”
Destination Imagination, or DI is a team based problem solving competition in which competitors are required to solve both long and short term challenges. Teams choose between six challenges to solve over the course of four months and present their solutions to the judges at Regionals.
The challenge the Lancer team chose this year was to create a vehicle that could change propulsion systems and movement methods and travel across a fourteen foot span. They had to do so while at the same time performing a skit where one character undergoes an unexpected transformation. The Duct Tape Dudes came up with a play and a vehicle to solve the challenge involving a ladder as a downhill track and a dill powered car.
Team member Jimmy Fitzgibbons rode the vehicle down the ladder slide while Brown drove it back across the line.
“We had a lot of fun at this competition and I think we are going to do even better at States,” Brown said.
The next step on the road to the annual Global competition is the State competition.The top two teams from the state in each challenge move on to compete against teams from around the world in Tennessee this May. The Duct Tape Dudes have competed at Globals for the last four years and hope to compete again this year.
“DI is a lot of work but going to Globals with the team each year makes it worthwhile,” Goodspeed said.
