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Tharptown rocketry team qualifies for nationals

One hundred teams of high school students will soon travel to Washington, D.C. to compete in the next phase of the 2018 Team America Rocketry Challenge. These teams are the national finalists who posted the top qualifying scores from more than 5,000 student teams that competed.

In its first year with a rocketry team, Tharptown High School placed among the top 100 nationally, and five students will compete next month in the national finals.

Tharptown, which placed one of its two teams in the national finals, will be joined by three Russellville High School teams in the top 100.

Rocketry team sponsor Marsha Inmon will accompany THS students Annslee Bottoms, Perla Chavez, Aleea Gaston, Destin Martin and Presley Laster to the nation’s capital with a chance to move on to the international competition later this year.

Inmon has sponsored the THS robotics program for three years, but this was first year for the school to offer rocketry. Tharptown has two rocketry teams, with students ranging from grades 7-10, so the program should be strong in the coming years as well.

“We are excited. We have a really good group of kids,” Inmon said. “I’d say the smartest kids in Franklin County are on our rocketry teams, and we have the best group of parents you could ask for. Everyone has really come together and helped us get to the point we are at now.”

The team qualified by posting one of the 100 best scores nationally while launching a rocket to 800 feet within a 41-43 second period. Like the sport of golf, the lower the score, the better.

Bottoms, a sophomore who served as team captain, credits her teammates, Inmon and the team’s two mentors for their quick success.

“Mrs. Inmon was there for me from the beginning. She invited me to join the robotics program, and that was very life-changing,” Bottoms said. “When she asked me to join the rocketry team, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited. The concept is something I never thought I’d grasp as a sophomore. We started out knowing nothing about aerodynamics and learned how to get something in the air.

“We were taught by Andrew Heath and Scarlet Studdard. They stayed involved, and we got better.”

Each team member has specific duties related to the launch, from gauging weather conditions to watching for the rocket to land. In order to be a successful, qualifying launch, a raw chicken’s egg must be aboard the rocket and still intact when the rocket lands.

Tharptown’s other rocketry team includes captain Grayson Studdard, co-captain Brayden Malone, Coleman Warhurst, Jaden Laster and Grace Beard. Although his team dealt with some uncooperative weather during their launch, Malone said he’s thrilled to see his classmates advancing to nationals.

“Our main goal is to learn more about rocketry, and to do well in the competition,” Malone said. “We work together really well and help each other out. We want to see them win the national competition.”

The Team America Rocketry Challenge is the world’s largest student rocket contest and is used as a platform to build a stronger American workforce in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It’s sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry and was created in 2002.

For more information on TARC, log onto www.rocketcontest.org.

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