Published: May 02, 2007 10:30 pm         

Terre Haute South, Northview finish in top 12 in Super Mileage Challenge

INDIANAPOLIS — Terre Haute South Vigo and Northview finished among the top 12 high school teams in the Indiana Mathematics Science and Technology Education Alliance Super Mileage Challenge on Monday at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

In the unlimited class, South placed 10th at 437.1 miles per gallon, while Northview took 12th place at 324.75 mpg.

Lafayette Jefferson won the unlimited team title at 1,350.02 mpg. In the stock class, Evansville Mater Dei took first place at 1,365.41 mpg.

Among the special awards, Northview took two — the Sportsmanship Award and the People’s Choice Award.

Other special team honors went to Warsaw (Performance Concept Award), Mishawaka (Best Integration of Math, Science and Technology), South Spencer (Best Design Proposal and Communications and Marketing Award), Winamac (Craftsmanship Award) and Triton Central (Tenacity Award).

Members of the South team participating included Paul Bennett, Ethan Hamblen, Brian Homsangpradit, Jason Sample, Elijah Turner and Shane Weber. They were supervised by Steve Joseph, Marquis Songer, Josh Speer, Dan Turner and Marlene Turner.

For Northview, the driver of the Knights’ car was Bert Blystone and the pit crew consisted of team manager Larry Parvin, crew chief Andrick Eldridge, Will Barnett, Heather Ludwig, Greg Reisinger, Jesse Summers and Tim Wetnight. Parent helpers were Julie Ludwig and David and Marcie Blystone. James Latta is the faculty adviser.

A total of 39 Indiana high schools competed in the event.

Students designed, built and drove the vehicles around the 0.686-mile ORP oval in the competition.

Students were required to pilot their team cars for 10 laps while averaging a speed of 15 mph during the course of the run. Following the time on the track, the gas tank was weighed and the mileage was calculated using a formula provided to each team.

Teams could make as many runs as they wished, and the best three attempts were averaged for their official result.

A year ago, Mater Dei won the stock class at 1,241.76 mpg, while Harrison won the unlimited class at 1,060.36 mpg.

All entrants use the same Briggs & Stratton engine. The Unlimited class may modify the engine and the stock engines are sealed.

“This event provides students with an exciting ‘hands-on, minds-on’ opportunity to apply academics to meet a real world challenge,” said Mike Fitzgerald, technology education specialist for the Indiana Department of Education. “These students may be the scientists, engineers and technicians of tomorrow — the kind of innovators who are so important to Indiana’s economic future.”