Henley students earn top honors at World KidWind Challenge

June 1, 2026 / Henley High School students competed against the top youth renewable energy teams in the world in May and returned home with two major awards from the 2026 World KidWind Challenge in Madison, Wis.

Henley’s team Valley Breeze, made up of Will Grayson, Dylan Orr and Thatcher Rabbiosi, earned one of the event’s top overall honors as Wind Champion, while teammate Walker Crawford, competing as a solo-entry team Zephyr, earned the Innovation Award for his unique turbine design.

The World KidWind Challenge brought together 125 teams from around the world, including students from Taiwan, Thailand and Estonia. Competitors participated in wind and solar events across elementary, middle school and high school divisions.

For the wind competition, teams designed and built turbines that had to fit inside a 4-foot-by-4-foot wind tunnel while performing under multiple conditions, including low-speed winds, medium-speed winds and rotating wind tunnels that required the turbine to yaw and adjust direction.

Teams also competed in the Shark Tunnel, a high-speed challenge where students had to determine the correct wind speed and resistor combination to heat water using thermal energy from the resistor transferred from the electricity generated by their turbine.

In addition to tunnel testing, students completed instant engineering challenges, took a knowledge quiz, and presented their designs to a panel of industry judges.

“The Top Wind Champion means they were excellent in every category and every tunnel,” said Henley engineering teacher and KidWind advisor Kristi Lebkowsky.

For Grayson, the trip marked his third appearance at the World KidWind Challenge after previously qualifying in seventh and eighth grade.

“When we came to designing it, simplicity was really the key,” Grayson said. “In engineering, it’s easy to build something complicated that works, but it’s harder to engineer something simple that works reliably and efficiently.”

Grayson said the team spent weeks refining the turbine’s gear ratios and blade designs to maximize performance under varying wind speeds.

“We just wanted a design that worked well and that we were happy with,” Orr added. “To then go compete internationally and see all those years of engineering and interest come full circle was really awesome.”

Orr previously attended Worlds as a freshman, when his team earned the competition’s Rookie of the Year award. Now preparing to graduate next week, he said the experience helped shape his future goals in engineering.

“KidWind is really what got me invested in engineering,” Orr said. “I remember watching my older brothers work on turbines when I was younger and thinking it was the coolest thing ever.”

Rabbiosi attended the World KidWind Challenge for the first time this year and said one of the biggest challenges was troubleshooting equipment failures during competition.

“We’d burn out generators and have to replace them between tunnels,” Rabbiosi said. “There was definitely a lot of troubleshooting on the fly.”

Crawford also made his first appearance at Worlds and competed alone with a turbine design inspired by jet turbine engines. His design featured quick-lock blade mechanisms and interchangeable hubs that drew attention from judges and competitors throughout the event.

“A lot of adults were coming up and asking me about my design,” Crawford said. “That’s when I started thinking maybe I had a chance at the Innovation Award.”

Crawford said he worked on the project every day after qualifying at regionals on April 2.

“It’s definitely much better at high speeds,” Crawford said of his turbine. “It’s based off turbine engines you’d see in jet planes.”

Lebkowsky said the opportunity to compete internationally is especially meaningful for students from a rural school district. She thanked Orsted for its ongoing generous support, saying the trip to the World competition would not have been possible without their sponsorship.

“We don’t always get opportunities to compete against the best teams in the nation and the world,” Lebkowsky said. “For students from a small rural high school to go out into the big leagues and perform this well is really rewarding. It helps them realize they’re not just doing great locally — they’re doing great nationally.”