With a victory in the Mar. 6 JETS competition at Illinois Institute of Technology, the Junior Engineering Technical Society team is looking forward to continuing its rapid ascent to national respect.

The varsity team, coached by Mr. Marvin Breig of the Science department, won first place for the first time since 2008, and the JV team won first to defend its number one title from last year.

The members of the club competed in the TEAMS, or the Testing in Engineering Aptitude, Math, and Science event at the tournament, making progress in achieving their goal of receiving a high national ranking for the second year in a row.

“When you look at some of the other clubs in the school like Forensics or Mock Trial, there are legacies of being very successful,” said Brian Glowniak, junior. “It is nice to know that JETS is finally getting some recognition.”

Last year, the team was ranked fifth in the nation but failed to place as highly in the IIT tournament. The tournament, which brings nine of the best teams in the state to compete, is a very tough tournament that has a large impact when determining the teams’ national rankings.

“The fact that we did so well at this particular tournament is very reassuring for us because it could solidify our chance of a high national ranking,” said Matt Yeh, junior.

Regional and state rankings will be coming out in a few weeks, and the long awaited nationals rankings will be announced at the end of April.