MATTAWA - Students from Wahluke Junior High School competed in the First Lego League regional challenge in Ellensburg on Feb. 1 as a rookie team.

This was Wahluke's first year. The team members took in the entire spectrum of competition in hopes of being a competitive team for 2014-2015.

WJH received the FLL Judges Award. This recognition is reserved for teams that have shown promise in their efforts taking on the challenge as a rookie team. It was given to only one of the 30 teams that competed in the Central Washington Qualifier.

According to coach Arthur Morken, the team members were dubbed the Central Washington Rock Stars in recognition of their efforts in the Robot Design, Core Values(team work), Presentation, and Robot Race portions of the event.

"With this being the team's first appearance in FLL, the students were a little nervous but stated half way through the day that they had gained valuable experience and were motivated to shoot higher next year with new ideas," Morken said.