PLAISTOW - Wacky hats, colorful costumes and tons of student creativity packed the hallways at Timberlane Regional High School yesterday for the state finals of Destination ImagiNation.

In Destination ImagiNation, 106 teams made up of students in grades one through 12 compete by designing a play that incorporates specific elements in less than eight minutes. Each team had a manager who helped guide them, but each play was designed by students, including characters, storyline and set.

In the Card-DI-ology challenge, Windham Center School designed a skit about a fairy tale Queen of Diamonds who loses the suit of diamonds in her deck of cards and hires a detective to find out who stole her favorite suit.

Each team's play had to have a character whose life is affected by a deck of cards. The teams also had to build a structure out of cards that could hold as much weight as possible.

The Windham team's structure held 395 pounds, but the Timberlane Middle School's team fared even better in the weight contest by holding 420 pounds, which is 120 pounds more than their card structure held at the regional competition three weeks ago.

"I bet it could have held somewhere around 500 pounds," said 13-year-old Alex LeFoley of Plaistow, who played one of the janitors who traveled back in time to visit ancient Egyptian pyramids made out of a deck of cards.

Teammate Brandon Birmingham of Plaistow said the team was able to build a stronger structure after they learned that several columns would hold more weight than one large cylinder.

But the improvisation competition where each team designs a play and builds a set is the favorite competition of a six-person team from Londonderry Middle School.

As part of the preparation for the competition, teams are allowed to research some of the possible challenges they may be given, like incorporating customs from different countries, but they do not find out what kind of challenges they will be faced with until a half-hour before they are scheduled to perform.

Improvising in front of a crowd is nothing new for these six middle-school students who have been competing in the improvisation category of Destination ImagiNation together for the last seven years, including two trips to the international competition held in late May every year.

"We're all good friends," said 14-year-old Hilary Whitehead. "If we did any other challenge more than once, it would be boring."

After the show, which featured a fashion show that incorporated styles from China, England and France, the team agreed that the half-hour before the show was stressful with each member trying to make up and remember their lines. They also used a cardboard box to build a multicolored Chinese New Year dragon that transformed into a fireplace in just 15 minutes before the show.

The first- and second-place teams from yesteday's competition will advance to the international Global Destination ImagiNation Challenge at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Tenn. from May 23 to 26.

Winning teams were not available as of press time.