The Wawasee Iron Pride robotics team broke the robotics skills world record twice, won the tournament championship, robotics skills champion, and qualified another team for state Saturday during its own tournament at the Hardwood Tepee.
The finals came down to one point. As alliance captain, 574M chose 574C to join them as number one seed.
574D allied with 491A from Pioneer High School of Royal Center, to upset the second seed, Wawasee’s 574F and 1233F from Crown Point, to meet 574M & C in the finals.
In the final round, the autonomous segment ended in a tie. 574M’s alliance quickly fell behind, but throughout the two-minute battle 574M & C slowly pulled ahead.
“If we had two more seconds to complete a low park, we would have won,” said Nathan Smith, driver for 574D.
Julie Hays, assistant coach, said, “The finals was a real nail-biter and we weren’t really certain at first who came out on top.”
“This was an amazing tournament,” said Jed Wandland, Wawasee head coach. “The competition keeps getting better and better.
“Our team is a powerhouse and one of the largest robotics programs in the state. The mentorship among Wawasee students to help each other become better is the best part of the robotics program.“
The tournament was made up of two events, VEX VRC (high school and middle school with metal robots) and VEX IQ (elementary and middle school with plastic robots).
Wawasee had all 11 teams in the finals bracket. The Iron Pride also had first-, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th- and 14th-place finishes in Skills Challenge, a time trial to see how many points the robot can score by itself in one-minute driver and one-minute autonomous periods.
Team 574C is ranked No. 1 in the world in this challenge this week, with 574D ranked No. 64, 574J at No. 306, 574A at No. 312, 574M at No. 354, 574K at No. 360 and 574E at No. 645. Last year, there were 10,000 teams in the world in Skills Challenge.
The next tournament for the Iron Pride will be Saturday at West Jay County Middle School in Dunkirk.
Wawasee Robotics Tournament
Iron Pride Results
• 574M “Amazon” (Alison Cole, Keegan Cook) – Tournament champions and alliance captains, first place, 354th in world in Skills Challenge.
• 574C “Centurion” – (Micah Rassi, Evan Rassi, Joe Kelsheimer, Nick Murphy) Second place in tournament, Robot Skills champion, state qualifier, ranked No. 1 in the world in Skills Challenge.
• 574F “Barbarian” – (Vanessa Wright, Mykie Moses, Tess Helfers) third place, semi-finalists.
• 574D “Immortal” – (Cory Dunivan, Noah Beckner, Jack Collins, Wesley Hays, Nathan Smith) Fourth place, finals, seventh in Robot Skills, ranked 64th in the world in Skills Challenge.
• 574J “Xerxes” – (Ethan Hays, Tyler Bailey, Gage Beezley) Finished in 15th place, quarterfinalists, eighth in Robotics Skills, ranked 306th in the world in Skills Challenge.
• 574E “Legion” – (Connor Byrd, Ryan Scott, Jackson Coverstone) Finished in 16th place, semifinalists, finished 14th in Robotics Skills, ranked 645th in the world in Skills Challenge.
• 574A “Marines” – (Joey Sunday, Even Gerding) Finished in 22nd place and in the round of 16, ninth in Robotics Skills, ranked 312th in the world in Skills Challenge.
• 574H “Samurai” – (Evan Brower) Finished in 23rd place, finals, round of 16.
• 574G “Iron Knight” – (Colten Edger, Harry Doss, Brian Schlabach, Jossie Coy) finished in 27th place, finals, round of 16.
• 574K “Athena” – (Makenna Tharp, Norah Miller, Andrea Mickley) Finished in 29th place, finals round of 16; finished 10th in Robotics Skills, ranked 360th in the world in Skills Challenge.
• 574B “Berserker” – (Anah Sommers, Alivia Stidams, Adrieanna Yoder) Finished in 32nd place, finals, round of 16.
