First place in the eighth annual Team America Rocketry Challenge held May 15 in the Plains, Va., went to a team from Penn Manor High School in Millersville, Pa., the event’s sponsors said in a press release.

This year’s contest, which began in September with 669 teams vying for a chance to compete among the top 100 qualifying teams at the finals, challenged students to design, build and launch a model rocket to an altitude of 250 meters with a flight time of 40 to 45 seconds and return a raw egg payload to the ground unbroken without a parachute. Teams are scored based on their deviation from the altitude and time aloft targets.

The first- and second-place winners belong to the same rocket club, Penn Manor Rocket Club. Bob Jones High School from Madison, Ala., came in third place.

The competition was sponsored by the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry in Marion, Iowa.