The Flying Top Hats, consisting of Lily-Ann LePenven, Jade LeBoeuf, Emily Detris and Ameila Clark, finished eighth in the competition and won the Flight Operations Award. Detris is not pictured. (Courtesy Kearsarge Regional Middle School) 
Oliver Pirone, seen here flying his drone, had the second highest individual tournament score with 330 points. (Courtesy Kearsarge Regional Middle School) 
Owen Houle, of the Delta Flyers Team, observes his drone’s autonomous flight through the course. (Courtesy Kearsarge Regional Middle School) 
The Flying Ninja Nuggets team, consisting of Oliver Pirone, Grayson Rettig, Will Martin and Hayden Bleier, placed second among the 27 teams at the competition and won the Inspire Award. (Courtesy Kearsarge Regional Middle School)
NEW LONDON — Superintendent Winfried Feneberg and Principal Stephen Paterson are pleased to share that Kearsarge Regional Middle School students flew to success at a New England regional drone competition earlier this month.
Kearsarge Regional Middle School sent four teams to the New England District Championship drone competition in Connecticut on Saturday, March 16, and three teams qualified for a national competition at Fairmont State University in West Virginia on May 17-18.
The Flying Ninja Nuggets Team, consisting of Oliver Pirone, Grayson Rettig, Will Martin, and Hayden Bleier, placed second among the 27 teams at the competition.
The Delta Flyers team, consisting of Ryan Geraghty, Jake Desjardins, Gabe Wakeman and Owen Houle, placed sixth in the competition.
The Flying Top Hats, consisting of Lily-Ann LePenven, Jade LeBoeuf, Emily Detris and Ameila Clark, finished eighth in the competition. The Flying Top Hats qualified for the Middle School National Event in Tennessee at a prior event
The newest of the four teams, Team D, consisting of Victoria Herness, Sophia Macnutt, Elena Wolfinger and Lylah McDaniel, finished 20th in the competition despite having only about three weeks of practice.
Teams competed by flying their drones through courses both manually and using autonomous controls, earning points for successfully making it through the course.
The tournament was supported by the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation, which assists educators through competition and workforce readiness programs to increase student engagement in science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science.
The tournament allowed students to engage in hands-on, student-centered learning. Teams learned about drones, flight principles, programming, documentation, and communication skills while expanding their understanding and building interest for related career opportunities.
The Flying Ninja Nuggets, The Delta Flyers, and the Flying Top Hats will now move on to national competition in West Virginia in May.
Maureen McGinty and Laurie Prewandowski serve as team advisors to all four teams.
Both teams that qualified for nationals, as well as The Flying Top Hats, which qualified for nationals earlier in the year, will be fundraising to help fund their trips to West Virginia.
“I want to congratulate all four of our teams on a great competition,” said Principal Paterson. “All of our students performed admirably and learned a lot en route to finishing well in the competition.”
“I am extremely proud of our students for showing their skills and determination in this competition, and to wish them luck at nationals,” said Superintendent Feneberg.
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