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Mitchell Robertson (upper left), 17, uses his team’s robot to fling a ball at a target at West High School on Tuesday. Photo by Jackson Forderer
Three of the four state VEX Robotics champions hail from Mankato.
Of the dozen Minnesota teams invited to the world championships, seven are from Mankato.
“Mankato dominated, for sure,” said East High School junior Parker Theobald said about the local success at the recent state tournament.
The winning teams aren’t taking much time to celebrate. They are spending two afternoons a week improving their robots in hopes of bringing a first world championship title back to Mankato.
“Most teams end up rebuilding (their robots) from the ground up,” said East High School senior Sophie Draper.
The VEX Robotics program challenges middle and high school students to design, build, program and operate a robot. Each year there is a new game with new objectives.
The Mankato East program, which includes students from East High School and seventh- and eighth-graders from Prairie Winds Middle School, had around 115 participants this year. The Mankato West program has around 70 competitors from West High School and Dakota Meadows Middle School.
Teams that did well at regional tournaments advanced to the state tournament Feb. 1-2 in St. Cloud. Top state teams earned an invite to the world championship at the end of April in Kentucky.
East High School students (from left) Ryan Swanson, Leif Stout, Jayden Siegle, Aaron Cherny, Luke Drummer and William Schwamberger compete at the state VEX Robotics tournament last month in St. Cloud. Photo courtesy Michele Machado
It’s the fifth consecutive year Mankato East will be represented at the championship and the third time for Mankato West.
A team from each high school teamed up to win the state high school contest.
The competition requires teams to form “alliances” in which two teams play against two other teams in each round.
The Betaversion 3.0 team from East and the Steel Phoenixes from West made it to the finals and decided to work together.
“They were the obvious choice. It just made sense,” said East High School senior Leif Stout.
Now the Mankato teams share the state champions title.
Betaversion 3.0 also earned the Excellence Award — the top honor given by judges who interview each team and consider a number of factors such as best robot design and teamwork.
Two more teams each from East and West made it to the state semi-final rounds, which earned them a trip to Kentucky. Some of those teams also took home awards for the best built and best designed robots, best programming and driving, and for community service.
A team of Dakota Meadows seventh-graders also were named state co-champions, in the middle school tournament.
The five first-time participants, who call themselves, Static Core, said they couldn’t have been so successful without advice from more seasoned West competitors.
“It’s hard work. But the tournaments are a lot of fun,” said team member Aiden Gerdes.
From left, Ryan VonMaluski, 12, Tyler Jacoby, 12, Aiden Gerdes, 13, and Edison Shores, 12, start building a new robot for the VEX Robotics World Championship Tuesday at West High School on Tuesday. Their team is among seven teams from Mankato to qualify for the championship. Photo by Jackson Forderer
A few prior Mankato teams have made it into the divisional finals at prior world contests and one took home the award for best robot design last year.
The East competitors are hoping one of their teams will win their division this year. If they achieve that goal, coaches Dave Stahl and Mehele Machado have promised they will get robotics-themed tattoos.
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