The Iron Chargers are at it again

Last Saturday marked the first full competition of the year for the Grygla Iron Chargers Robotics team. This year, the two teams are made up of Trystan Jelle, Jake Ahlbeck, Chris Luttrell and Abby Kiesow (4149C) and Julianne Nordby, Lucian Tinnes, Hudson McMillin and Elise Monson (4149G).

Prior to the competition on Saturday, that was held at Sacred Heart High School, the team attended a “Skills Only” competition at NCTC on Friday, November 18th. Skills events are when it’s only the team’s robot on the field scoring as many points as it can. The 4149C team achieved the highest score in the state of MN, thus far this year, while the 4149G team got the 9th highest score. 

Saturday’s competition in East Grand Forks brought some excitement as the two teams went head to head; team 4149C won by just one point! Team 4149C was ranked first after qualifications and choose to be allied with their own team, 4149G, for the finals. (They were ranked 3 out of 24.) The teams won their way through quarterfinals, semifinals and ended up winning the tournament! With both being named tournament champions, Team 4149G also won the excellence award and the skills challenge.

Both teams, that meet every Wednesday after school, now qualify for the state tournament.

Up next is another “Skills Only” event at NCTC in December with another full competition scheduled for January, also being held at Northland Community & Technical College in Thief River Falls.

Robotics advisor, Isaac Kvasager, says, “Because both teams have now qualified for state; this allows us to experiment with some different designs for the remainder of the year.”

It’s very early in the season, but the team is off to a good start!