MOUNTAIN LAKES — Each Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon, in a room filled with the hum of 3D printers and tables scattered with prototypes, a group of high schoolers meet with a shared goal: building rockets that are able to win the American Rocketry Challenge.
The Makerspace at the Mountain Lakes Public Library is home to its very own rocketry team, Team Tungsten. The group includes Katherine Yakovets, Isabella Marotta, Evie Marotta, Josie Marotta, Jason Dimitov, Jack Wallace, Christian Lim, Andrew Matty, Medha Vavilia and mentor Richard He. Marotta Controls sponsors the team’s pursuit of model rocketry.
The team has spent months, dedicating hours to designing, testing, and refining their rockets and on April 5, 2026, the team officially qualified for Nationals, placing among the top 10% nationwide, being one of 100 teams out of over 1,000 to make it. Team Tungsten’s achievement is especially notable because the team manufactures and designs their rockets entirely using custom 3D printing.
After qualifying for regionals, Team Tungsten 3D printed four entirely new rockets, ensuring that they would do their best to maximize their chances for Nationals. Some of the major improvements the team made included printing custom weight sets for fine-tuning performance, improving egg capsule design to prevent breaking on impact, and fixing parachute deployment issues to make sure that their rockets would properly slow down for a stable descent back to land. Katherine Yakovets, member of Team Tungsten, explained, “We basically went back and fixed everything that went wrong at regionals.”
The American Rocketry Challenge is scored with precision. To make it to Nationals, teams aim for a flight time between 36-39 seconds and an altitude of 750 feet without the egg that is placed inside the rocket breaking upon impact. One point off second or per foot off target results in a penalty point with the goal being to have the lowest total score, similar to golf. Team Tungsten earned a score of approximately 14 points, which was well below the cutoff of around 23 points, securing their spot at Nationals. “Finding out that we qualified was amazing but not a total surprise. We knew how much work we had put in, so seeing it pay off was really rewarding and it still feels surreal” says Katherine.
Team Tungsten will be traveling to Virginia on May 16, to participate in the Nationals Finals for $20,000 and the chance to represent the United States at the International Rocketry Challenge at the Farnborough or Paris Air Show. At Nationals, there are other fun challenges that teams can compete in such as a costume contest and a scavenger hunt where there is a cash prize of $500 for winners. Teams also have the opportunity to receive awards like Outstanding Mentor and Outstanding Team Advisor.
I’m proud of the team. This is only our second year competing and we understood the challenge,” says Richard He, mentor of Team Tungsten. “Competing in Nationals is uncharted territory but we are fully prepared for anything and everything”
While their engineering skills have strengthened, the months of creating pieces, testing rockets, and random Walmart Trips have also brought the team closer together. With just over a month until Nationals, Team Tungsten is ready to take on the American Rocketry Challenge not just as competitors, but as a team shaped by resilience and experience.
