Grygla Iron Chargers named 2016 VEX Robotics State Champions

The Iron Chargers have earned an invitation to the VEX Robotics World Championships! They were named the 2016 VEX Robotics State Champions last weekend when they competed in the Dream It Do It Minnesota State VEX Robotics Competition that was held in St. Cloud January 23-24. Along with being named the tournament champions once again, out of seventy teams, the Iron Chargers Team 4149C also won the high school Excellence Award, which is quite the accomplishment.

In their five years of robotics, this was the best the team had ever done! Robotics advisor, Isaac Kvasager, said this was by far the most competitive tournament in those five years. This will mark the team’s fourth year heading to the world championship event, which will be held April 20-23 in Louisville, Kentucky again. 

Team 4149C members are Trystan Jelle, MaKayla Vad, Dustin Nelson and Kelly Dougherty. At the state competition, the younger team, 4149G, went 3-4 during qualifications and were not chosen by any of the top 8 seeded robots, so they didn’t get to participate in the eliminations round. However, Kvasager said of the team, “For a first year team, to even make it to the state competition was a significant achievement! They did well and should be a very competitive team next year thanks to everything they have learned this year!”

As for the ‘C’ team, they haven’t had a chance to think about what’s coming next! They plan to take a day or two off and then have a team meeting this week. Most likely, the group will head to the world’s competition with the same robot, but work on other designs on the side to see if they can possibly design something better. They also need to discuss upcoming fundraisers that will help them travel to Kentucky. Congratulations to the Iron Chargers on another successful competition.