Watertown Middle School's Destination Imagination team earned the 1st place award at the South Dakota Destination Imagination State Competition over the past weekend. The team will be competing in the DI Global Finals to be held at the University of Tennessee on May 25-30. This is the first time the team will participate in Global Finals. They have been working toward it for five years placing at state competition, but never before achieving the first place finish. Team members have spent more than three months solving their Team Problem, which involves technical, theatrical, and creative challenges.

Destination Imagination is the world's largest problem solving and creativity competition. Watertown team members Alan Jensen, Kaleb Anderson, Zach Schmidt, Ryan Briggs, Thad Titze, Katelin Promersberger and Emma Struwe will be joining more than 5000 students at the Global Competition. Teams from across the United States and around the world will come together to demonstrate their solutions to challenges and participate in improvisational challenges that hone critical thinking skills.

The students were coached by Janet Jensen and Kent Anderson who gave hours of their time to develop this championship accomplishment. Local businesses will be contacted for donations to help with travel and competition expenses, and team members will be having several fund raising activities.