O'Neill Students Take Top Honors at Robotics Competition
December 05, 2016
Launch the media gallery 1 playerArticle Courtesy of Holt County News and Events ~
Four O'Neill students proved their robotics prowess recently at Northeast Community College. Northeast and Wayne State College sponsored the first of two VEX Robotics competitions in the Lifelong Learning Center.
They were part of fifty students on seven area high school teams from Battle Creek, O’Neill and Pierce, as well as one team from Northeast.
Richard Chrisman, information technology instructor at Northeast, said this year’s competition featured a game called “Starstruck.”
“In this game, competitors attempt to move game pieces from the side of the field comprised of an alliance of two teams to their opponent’s side of the field, while the opponent alliance works to move them back. Each match in the game has an autonomous segment in which the robot has been programmed to complete pre-determined tasks, followed by a driver control segment in which the students use a remote control to drive their robot to accomplish their goals.”
The game was played with each team being matched in random alliances. Each team competed in seven matches in the qualifying round to determine seeding for the elimination round (playoffs).
The Blue team from O’Neill High School won all seven matches in the qualification round and was the highest seed in the elimination round. Team members include Justin Beeks, Ezra Bailey-Kelly, Jared Hammerlun and Nathaniel Jennings.
O’Neill Blue then selected the Northeast Community College “Geek” team as its partner in the elimination rounds. This alliance finished first in the competition, with O’Neill Blue being declared the overall high school event champion.
Two teams from Pierce High School, Bad Vexpectations and Vex-Men 2.0 finished as the second place alliance. Those teams then faced each other to finish second and third, respectively, in the event. Members of Bad Vexpectations are Cody Fuchs, Emelia Goetsch, Alex McKeown and Kyler Peters.
Bryce Bierman, Jacob Kuester, Ethen Kuether and Derek Ross made up Vex-Men 2.0.
Members of the Northeast “Geek” team are Calvin Craig, Norfolk, Dylan Kudera, Norfolk, and Adam Schantz, Battle Creek.
The next Northeast/Wayne State College Vex Robotics competition will be held Saturday, January 28, 2017 at Wayne State College.
