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BROOKFIELD -- Brookfield High School's "The Fuel" drone racing team placed fifth at the national championship last week in Denver, Colorado.
Superintendent Toby Gibson said Sunday he and school officials learned the high school team placed fifth overall in the competition and their video presentation came in fourth place.
"We are super proud. For being fifth in the nation, they did very well," Gibson said, noting the team is only in its second year of competing.
The district kept track of how the team was doing with postings on the school's social media site.
The two-day competition was May 9 to 11, with Brookfield being among 12 teams from across the nation who qualified for the national event.
The teams members are William McAnony, Cameron Nealy, Sam Plyler, Kara Svarny and Makenna Hunter and coach Tim Reinsel.
On day one of the two-day competition, the Brookfield team finished fifth in the "Capture the Flag" event and then competed in the second round against 12 other teams on the second day.
Gibson said even making it to nationals was an accomplishment for the young team.
At a recent school board meeting before they went to the Denver Convention Center, Reinsel told school officials the team has competed in drone racing in person and virtually on the computer for the past year.
For the competition, the team had to design and program a new drone they named "Larry."
Reinsel, who is a certified drone operator, said the team competed against other teams from across the U.S. in the Drones in Schools program. The Brookfield team qualified for nationals through a virtual competition. The program is offered through the Trumbull County Educational Service Center.
One competition involves the drone capturing a flag by flying over different colored flags and finding the team's color. Another competition has a judge looking over the engineering, design and marketing of the team's drone. Drones also are judged on their ability to carry items.
Team members took three drones to the competition with one for display and two others for racing.
"This is exciting news for our little town to be competing nationally," said Ronda Bonekovic, Brookfield board president, who reported on how the team was doing Thursday at the Trumbull Career and Technical Center board meeting, where she is a member.