- June 13, 2026
Alexander Mangal and Zachary Selic scored the first-ever top-10 finish at the International SeaPerch Challenge for the Buddy Taylor Middle School underwater robotics club.
The duo's team, The Oranges, placed eighth overall out of 88 middle school teams in the international competition May 30-31 at the University of Maryland.
Mangal and Selic earned a perfect score of 100 and a ninth-place finish in the Mission Course, which entails transporting objects from one underwater platform to another within a time limit with their remotely operated vehicle.
They placed a second overall with a score of 92.33 in their Technical Design Report that describes their ROV and their engineering and design process. And they placed 29th in navigating the Obstacle Course with a time of 1:02.
The BTMS club, under the guidance of advisor Tracy Jones and assistant coach Michael Bozzo, brought three teams with a total of nine students to the international competition which included 210 middle school, high school and open-class teams from six countries and 44 states.
The other teams also finished among the top 55. The Ammonites team of Lucas Strunk (captain), Nathan Cabrera Delombard and Noah Johnson) placed 37th overall and The Great Whites team of Levente Beregszaszi (captain), Ashton Barnes, Alexander Dattolico and Robert Peters placed 55th.
“The results reflect much more than standard rankings,” Jones said. They represent a triumph of critical thinking, teamwork and resilience under pressure. The achievements of The Oranges, The Ammonites, and The Great Whites [show] our commitment to fostering excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
Mangal and Strunk were competing at internationals for the second time. Mangal, the captain of The Oranges, placed 22nd overall last year with a different teammate.
Selic and the entire Great Whites team were first-year club members, advancing to internationals despite this being their first year building and operating the remote vehicles.
All nine of the international competitors were eighth graders, and they all want to start up SeaPerch clubs at their high schools in the upcoming school year. Selic, the lone Indian Trails Middle School student in the BTMS club, wants to get a club started at Matanzas High School, while the others are planning to start a SeaPerch Club at Flagler Palm Coast.
