Sandy Valley sweeps Future Cities event

Kris Hill

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

Three teams of middle school students from Sandy Valley swept the top spots at last weekend's regional Future City competition.

Students from the small community about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas designed the three best cities of the future for the engineering competition.

A group of three eighth graders -- Alexis Mejia, Brandi Gilstrap and Nikki Kranz -- won the competition and a trip to the national contest that begins Feb. 18 in Washington D.C.

They named their city Tized, which is short for magnetized. The original idea was for the entire city to use the power of magnets, Gilstrap said. It didn't quite work out, but they kept the name anyway, she said.

Coming in second was the city of Suyobi, designed by the other eighth grade team of Sabrina Schroeder, Jenni Cathey and Amanda Mills.

In third place was the seventh grade team of Willy Aguirre, Ashlee Hanson and Sharon Benner with their city, Capella.

Sweeping the contest was a triumph for the Sandy Valley students.

"They were absolutely jubilant," DeAnna Stidham, the school's assistant principal, said.

This isn't the first time the Sandy Valley teams have tasted success in the Future City competition. Last year the team won the state competition before going on to the regional competition in Phoenix.

Kranz's older sister helped design the winning city last year. That group finished fourth in last year's regional contest.

Kranz and her teammates will spend the next few weeks preparing for the competition and raising money to pay for the trip.