Students from South Denver’s DSST: Byers drove their robot to a third-place finish recently, competing against 35 other teams from Colorado, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The team also won first place for “Most Elegant Robot” in the Dec. 2-3 regional finals of BEST—Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology—in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The team earned a spot at the regional competition by placing second in the Rocky Mountain BEST competition in mid-October.

Besides completing prescribed activities with their robot in several timed heats, the DSST: Byers “Skybots” had to write a detailed engineering notebook, build an exhibit and make a marketing presentation.

The 18-member Skybots team is comprised of seventh through ninth graders who competed against larger teams of mostly high school juniors and seniors.

The Skybots were the highest-scoring Colorado team and the only Colorado team ever to make it into the regional finals—a feat the team managed for the second consecutive year. Byers was also the best public school team in the region. Their score landed them among the Top 10 BEST teams in the nation.

Pride and excitement about their accomplishment was evident in how they described it.

“When they announced the finals, we all broke into cheers,” said student Daniel Maddy.

Student Evan Brink pointed out that many of the other finalists were made up of home-schooled students.

“It was part of their curriculum, but we have to come in after school, and we’re not able to meet every day and every week.”

Marsha Koneva, one of just two girls on the team, worked on a required engineering notebook and marketing presentation which scored 23 out of 25 points.

“Everyone started hugging and cheering,” she said, when asked about how the team reacted to the win.

The goals for next year are: attract more team members with more diversity, and— of course—win the top award.