Nebraska high schools earn honors in UNL engineering competition

An Omaha Creighton Prep team took top honors in the 2009 Tests of Engineering Aptitude Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition among high school students Feb. 25 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Engineering.

The Creighton Prep team, coached by David Dow, included Tom Belatti, Nick Davis, Thomas Gilgenast, Tomas Huerta, Jeffmin Lin, Tyler Nelsen, Brian Nevole and Jimmy Owens.

This program of the Junior Engineering Technical Society is a day-long competition of engineering challenges, illustrating how science and math principles, along with creativity and innovation, are applied to the real world of engineering. This year's competition focused on "Behind the Scenes: Theme Parks." The Nebraska competition had 26 teams compete from 17 schools.

The 2009 winners at UNL were:

Varsity -- 1, Omaha Creighton Prep; 2, Lincoln Southwest Team B; 3, Blair.

Junior Varsity -- 1, Omaha North Magnet Team B; 2, Omaha North Magnet Team A; 3, Blair.

Beyond demonstrating their engineering aptitude, qualifying teams will also go on to compete for a $5,000 grand prize for the top performing TEAMS group at the national level.

The link below is to a color JPEG image of the winning Creighton Prep team, left-to-right: David Dow (coach), Tom Belatti, Tomas Huerta, Brian Nevole, Jeffmin Lin, Thomas Gilgenast, Tyler Nelsen, Nick Davis, Jimmy Owens.