Iron Chargers compete in most successful VEX Robotics Competition yet

The Iron Chargers 4149C & 4149G teams attended their first VEX Robotics Competition of the year in Albany, MN last weekend and have never had such a successful competition! Their list of achievements included: Tournament Champions, Design Award, Excellence Award, highest programming skills score in the state, highest robot skills score in the state and the highest score in a match in the state! FUN FACT: The club’s “autonomous skills” score is #1 in the state and #25 in the WORLD, which is ranked out of thousands of teams!

For those who couldn’t be in attendance in Albany, club advisor, Isaac Kvasager, kept friends, family and community members updated on the match via Facebook and a live stream online. He said, “I’m quite proud of the teams. They have put in many hours to achieve what they did today.”

Twenty-seven teams were at the event and competed in a challenge called ‘Nothing But Net’, which consists of the robots shooting balls into high and low goals. After a successful day, both Iron Charger teams are now qualified for the State Competition in late January.

Congratulations to the older team, 4149C, who were the tournament champions and also the recipients of the Excellence Award, which is the highest award given. This is the third year in a row that the Iron Chargers have received this award! Team 4149C also obtained the highest tournament score in the state! Team members and jobs are: McKayla Vad (Design Notebook/CAD), Dustin Nelson (Builder/Driver), Kelly Dougherty (Programmer/Builder), and Trystan Jelle (Builder and updates website, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

The younger team, 4149G, lost to the older team in the semi-finals, but they won the design award, which is the second highest award! Both teams advanced to the semi-finals the day of the competition, but beings they were in the same bracket, only one team could advance. Team members and jobs are: Hudson McMillin (Builder), Chris Lutrell (Builder), Jake Ahlbeck (Builder), Lucian Tinnes (Builder/Driver), Julianne Nordby (Programmer/CAD/Design Notebook), and Elise Monson (Builder/Backup Programmer).

The next VEX Robotics Competition will be held in Bemidji at BSU on Saturday, December 5th, at 10am. Friends and family are welcome to support the team in person; otherwise the competition will be live streamed online.