Buena High School's first foray into solar-powered boat building paid off for a team of 12th-graders who earned third place in the newcomer division of the 2008 Solar Cup.

Nearly 850 high school students on 41 Southern California teams competed Friday through Sunday in the Solar Cup, hosted by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California at Lake Skinner near Temecula.

"I'm really proud of my students," said Scott Manninen, a wood shop teacher at Buena High in Ventura and its Solar Cup team adviser. "They surprised me. They really just stepped up."

The eight-member Buena team finished second among rookies in Saturday's 90-minute, 2-kilometer endurance race, Manninen said, and third among rookie teams in the 200-meter sprint Sunday. Overall, it finished third among newcomers and seventh among all teams.

Camarillo High School competed for the fourth year and took first place in the visual display competition. For visual display, each team developed marketing plans and advertising campaigns based on the water district's theme, "It's time to get serious about saving water."

"What we ended up winning with was a brochure," said team member Andrew Peterson, 18.

"It had various tips on water-saving plants and a short message about the importance of saving water."

All the results were not available Monday, but Camarillo team adviser and science teacher Donald Crowell expected it placed among the top 10.

The seven-month Solar Cup program began in November when teams from 41 high schools in five Southland counties built single-seat, solar-powered boats from hulls of marine-grade plywood supplied by the Metropolitan Water District.

Students found sponsors to finance their boats, which could not cost more than $3,500 for rookie teams and $2,500 for veteran schools. Buena found a sponsor in the city of Ventura. The Calleguas Municipal Water District sponsored the Camarillo team.

Manninen says his students learned to take the reins of a project. "It made me proud the way my group of boys came together and handled the challenges of the heat ... and all the technical inspections they made us go through."

Not to mention their trailer's one flat tire on the journey there and two on the way home.

"The most significant thing about this trip is that it was a character-building experience," Manninen said.