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If you're looking for someone to build a machine that can hurl heavy projectiles into an enemy camp, you might start with a team of students at Tucson High Magnet School.

For the second year in a row, the team took first place in the national Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement competition, held in Maryland over the weekend.

Student teams from across the nation competed by designing and building a trebuchet, a medieval weapon used to launch stones or even infected corpses across enemy lines.

In this kinder, gentler era, most students launched Hacky Sacks and were judged on the accuracy and distance of the launch, as well as on how they fared in an oral presentation and technical paper.

The ancient war machine is a good teaching tool because its physics are quite complex, said volunteer mentor Leonard Vance of Raytheon Missile Systems.

Team members Susma Ghimire, Ernie Somoza, Nicole Cotanche and Isaac Tineo traveled with teacher Sheila Marquez. Somoza and Ghimire also were part of last year's winning team.

Vance said there were some white-knuckle moments. When the trebuchet arrived, it came out in pieces.

"It had been crushed in transit and had to be put back together," he said. "You never know how things are going to work when they're put back together like that, and there were limited opportunities to practice because of the schedule."

The team decided to devote all of its time to troubleshooting the strength and accuracy shot, knowing the distance shot was fairly reliable.

"I was extremely happy to see that, because they were thinking on their own. It was a really great group," Vance said.

Students from Amphitheater Middle School took second place overall in the middle school competition. The team, led by teacher Ron Pierce, consisted of Manuel Ahumada, Dan Cochran, Kiara Montoya and Caitlyn Parsons.

More than 60 schools took part in MESA's Arizona program, which was launched in 1983 and is geared toward helping educationally disadvantaged students explore careers in math and science. More than half of the students are female, and more than 80 percent are minorities.

Three of the Tucson High members graduated in May, and all plan to pursue engineering or science majors. Cotanche will attend Northwestern University, while Ghimire and Tineo will attend the University of Arizona.