Creekview Aeronautics Team Advances To National Rocket Contest

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CANTON, GA -- Creekview High School’s Aeronautics Team has again advanced to the national finals of the world’s largest rocket contest.

The team has qualified to compete in the national finals of the 14th Annual Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) on May 15, at which they will face 99 of the top rocketry teams from across the country to claim the title of National champion.

Creekview is the only team from Georgia to qualify for the event at Great Meadow in the Plains, Va., outside of Washington, D.C.

This year, 789 teams representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands designed and built model rockets in hopes of qualifying for nationals.

Sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, the National Association of Rocketry and more than 20 industry partners, TARC is the world’s largest rocket contest.

Creekview High School’s team will compete for more than $100,000 in prizes and scholarships, and the opportunity to represent the United States at the International Rocketry Challenge taking place at the Farnborough Air Show outside of London in July.

At the international fly-off, teams from the United Kingdom, France and Japan will face the U.S. champions for the international title.

This year’s Creekview High School team includes Team Captain Andrew White, a senior; seniors Nicholas Dimos, Christian Ingram and Nicholas Garcia and freshmen Nathan Hall and Noah Tetpon. Both Andrew White and Nicholas Dimos were members of the 2014 National Championship Team.

“This being my last year in high school, I’m excited to get to compete one last time,” Andrew said. “Every year since I joined the club at least one team has qualified for nationals, and I’ve been working hard to teach the newer members in hopes of continuing our record.”

The Creekview program began in 2008 under the direction of Todd Sharrock and Tim Smyrl, both science faculty members at the school. This is the fourth year in a row that the team has made the national finals. In 2014, a Creekview team won the national competition and went on to represent the United States in the International Rocketry Competition in London, England, earning the title of world runner-up.

“I am so proud of the team this year,” Sharrock said. “This year presented some very unique challenges, and these students once again proved that they could rise to the occasion.”

TARC is the aerospace and defense industry’s flagship program designed to encourage students to pursue study and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, fields. The competition challenges middle and high school students to design, build and fly a rocket that meets specific altitude and flight duration parameters. This year's rules require a rocket carrying two raw eggs to reach 850 feet before returning the eggs to Earth, uncracked, all within 44 to 46 seconds.

“Congratulations are especially due to this year’s qualifying team as the data goals were so difficult to hit consistently,” Smyrl said. “This year's team was one of our most copious observers and data recorders to date.”

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Photo 1: Team members, from left to right, Noah Tetpon, Captain Andrew White and Christian Ingram prepare a rocket for launch.
Photo 2: Team member Christian Ingram cuts fins for a rocket.
Photo credits: Cherokee County School District