Gazette-Times

Eleven teams of students from Benton County advanced to the state finals of the Destination Imagination problem-solving competition next month at Oregon State University.

On Saturday, 52 teams from throughout southwestern Oregon competed in the regional tournament in Pleasant Hill.

Destination Imagination is a creative problem-solving competition for students in grades kindergarten through 12. Teams comprised of five to seven students work on one of five main challenges, along with an "instant challenge" in which they must successfully solve a problem in a few minutes.

Local teams and their adult team managers that qualified for the state competition are:

Theater smARTS

Crescent Valley High School (second place) - Alisyn Henneck, Anne Jasperson, Molly Keogh, Andy Moser, Caitlin Taylor and Rand Taylor (Peg Herring, John Keogh)

A Change In DIrection

Westland Middle School (first place, middle school) - Greg Alexander, Danny Alig, Xavier Brown, Alex Hoffman and Patrick Nabelek (Rose Brown)

Hoover Elementary (third place, elementary) - Spencer Hedrick, Brian Lach, Gavin Milligan, Doug Pentland, Colin Peterson, Devin Rosegold and Jacob Rueben, (Marc Rosegold, Eileen Milligan)

Once Improv a Time

Cheldelin Middle School Team 2 (first place) - Justin Chi, Alex Fortune, Max Henkels, Chris King, Steven Stark and Sean Turner (Ann Turner, Mark Henkels)

Cheldelin Middle School Team 1 (second place) - Kirsten Bildfell, Travis Harper, Michele Kahn, Alison Pentland, Tami Ranson, Kristina Trujillo and Samhir Vasdev (Kris Trujillo, Elaine Kahn)

ConnecDId!

Crescent Valley High School (first place, secondary) - Bill Anderson, Ryan Harper, Kipp Johnson, Beth Koch, Chris Koch, Julia Park and Ben Turner (Libby Ankarberg, John Park)

Philomath Elementary School (second place, elementary) - Kelly Currans, Natalie Esterberg, Kevin Martin, Ross Priewe, Josh Seekatz, Charlie Stouder and Parker Williams (Cheri Stouder, Jan Seekatz)

ViDIo Adventure

Philomath Elementary School (first place, elementary) - Sean Brodkorb, Aaron Davis, Trenton Davis, Joceline Howard, McKenzie Olson, Jeff Schreiner-McGraw, Kayla Thorsness (Lori McGraw, Adam Schreiner-McGraw)

Cheldelin Middle School (first place, middle school) - Jenny Koch, Hunter Park, Curtis Peterson, Matthew Rueben, Sean Skyllingstad and Pavan Vasdez (Beverly Park, Libby Ankarberg)

Hoover Elementary (second place, elementary) - Lucy Kahn, Mark Loika, Ashley McIntyre, Justin Rose, Michael Trujillo and Evan Wu (Kris Trujillo, Elaine Kahn)

Ashbrook Independent School Team (third place, secondary) - Ben Beamer, Alex Humphrey, Jen Johnson, Keaton Schwarz, Jake Thompson, Vivian Wehner and Tyler Wilson (Michael Wilson)