Mercer Island School District had five Destination ImagiNation teams that placed in the state tournament earlier in April.

All five teams placed in the top three. The Islander Middle School team Double Negatives took third place in the middle level competition in technical engineering for the “In the Zone” challenge. The team includes: Zoe Sheill, Derek Wang, Igal Tamarkin, William Goodwin, Vinny Ricci, Nate Robinson and Damien Snyder.

Overcooked Lasagna, a West Mercer team, took second place in elementary level improv with “Change in Realitee.” The team includes: Mollie Parkinson, Lila Shroff, Ben Roe, Jasper Geer, Sophia Ristuben, Sophia Chen and Lauren Hunter.

Spicy Sombreros, a West Mercer team, took first place in the elementary level structural engineering competition with “Twist-O-Rama.” The team includes: Justin Skene, Bridger Bourke, Ichi Nakata, Akhil Pothenini, Ryan Shobe, Julian Sanders and Kevin Li.

The Spicy Sombreros also earned a Spirit of DI award for displaying exceptional DI spirit during their Instant Challenge.

Los Tacos Hermanos, an IMS team, took first place in the middle level improv competition with “Change in Realitee.” The team includes: Ben Stoops, Cole Nielsen, Verli Chen and Bryan Zhao.

The Mercer Island High School team, The Illusions, took first place in the second level structural engineering competition in “Twist-O-Rama.” The team includes: Trevor Gullstad, Jay Rosenstein, Jason McRuer, Aidan Wang, Grace Hunter and Josh Park.

The Illusions also earned a Da Vinci award for outstanding creativity.

All teams were coached by Mark Headlee.

All first and second place teams will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., in late May  to compete in the Global Finals Tournament. There will be about 1,000 teams in attendance representing the top five percent of the most creative students in the world.