Although he's only 14 years old, Kevin Bochinski is well on his way to becoming a mechanical engineer who is already adept at designing machines that can throw stuff really, really far.

Kevin, along with teammates Tracy Howse, Caroline Pyon and Samira Bazuzi, flung their way to glory at the MESA USA National Engineering Challenge June 19-22 at Baltimore's Inner Harbor Marriott and the University of Maryland.

The team represented Cradlerock School, in Columbia.

Its trebuchet -- a catapult-like device that flings objects at a target -- placed in two of six categories at the national competition, taking second for design efficiency and third for distance.

The machine threw a bean bag more than 19 meters, or about 62 feet.

Middle and high school students from 10 states competed in the challenge. The Cradlerock team earned its spot at nationals by winning first place overall in the Maryland MESA challenge May 15.

MESA, which stands for Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement, is a national organization that supports students to achieve in the sciences and encourages them to pursue science-related careers.

The students put in countless hours over six months to design and build their machine, said Jason Cartwright, an eighth-grade science teacher at Cradlerock and one of the MESA team advisers.

"They did amazingly well," he added. "This is not a small accomplishment."

The machine, which is made out of thin pieces of wood and looks more delicate than it actually is, has a throwing arm about 4 feet high that pivots on a triangular-shaped base on wheels.

In addition to building a successful trebuchet, the team made a presentation on their machine and the science behind it and submitted technical drawings and a technical paper for the national competition, Cartwright said.

"It was more than just putting some sticks together," he said with a laugh.

Tracy, 13, said the national competition was intense but fun.

"It was amazing to think we made it to nationals," she said. "It was all right if we didn't win anything, because we had gotten so far."

The team did much research into what materials to use to make its trebuchet, Kevin said.

"It took us a little bit to decide what wood to use," he explained. "It had to be skinny, lower-density, sturdy but light."

Tracy said she enjoyed seeing how other teams at the competition handled the same challenge of building an efficient and effective trebuchet.

"There's a fine line between making it work and breaking it," she said with a laugh.

Tracy and Kevin will be freshmen at Oakland Mills High School next year, while Caroline will be in the eighth grade at Cradlerock. Samira has moved to Indiana, Cartwright said.

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