Challenge Accepted At 2nd Annual Tech Robotics Tourney

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- St. Cloud Tech High School held its 2nd annual VEX Robotics tournament on Saturday. Over 90 robotics teams competed in the middle school and high school divisions from all over Minnesota, and even a few teams from Iowa.

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Tech Robotics Coach Matt Keil says the kids are constantly changing their robots based on the data they get even during the tournament:

"The game changes every year and the robots change every day. The really cool thing about VEX Robotics is they go through the engineering and design process over and over and over again where they're constantly redesigning, rebuilding based off of uhm based off of challenges they had or new designs or new ideas they come up with, so they're constantly evolving which I really love about VEX Robotics."

He says winning a tournament is a big deal in VEX Robotics:

"The goal is to win the championship and the tournament. When you win the championship of a tournament you get a state invite and so you qualify for state and if you do well in the state tournament you can qualify for world's."

Keil says the game for robotics changes every year and this year's game is called "over-under."  Tech has 25 students spread out over 5 teams in its robotics program, and the program is in its 10th year.

Below is a list of the tournament results, and a list of all the schools competing in the Tech tournament, most schools have multiple teams competing.

HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION

Award                                     Team Name                      Affiliation 
Excellence Award                   Top Gear                          Mankato West Robotics
Tournament Champions         Top Gear                         Mankato West Robotics
Tournament Champions         Volt Mankato                  West Robotics
Tournament Finalists              Four Horsemen              Princeton High School
Tournament Finalists              Llamas                            Mankato West Robotics
Design Award                          Four Horsemen               Princeton High School
Robot Skills Champion           Volt                                  Mankato West Robotics
Judges Award                         Pierz Mechaneers           Healy Secondary - Pierz

MIDDLE SCHOOL DIVISION
Award                                    Team Name                        Affiliation
Excellence Award                  Tiger Alpha                         South Jr. High
Tournament Champions        Igneous                              Mankato West Robotics
Tournament Champions        The Leftovers                    Mankato West Robotics
Tournament Finalists             Unlimited Cereal Bus        Sauk Rapids-Rice M.S.
Tournament Finalists             Silver Steel                         Prince of Peace Lutheran Sch.
Design Award                          Igneous                              Mankato West Robotics
Robot Skills Champion           Tiger Alpha                        South Jr. High
Judges Award                         Gold Fish                            Sauk Rapids-Rice M.S.
Innovate Award                       The Usual Suspects          Princeton Middle School
Think Award                             Megabytes                        Royalton Middle School

PARTICIPATING TEAMS

Kimball
Scouts BSA-Troop 211 Sartell
Fosten
Foley
Stearns 4-H - Albany
Windom
Mankato West
Sauk Rapids
Mankato East
Prince of Peace - St. Cloud
East Grand Forks
Royalton
Cokato
Clear Lake, IA
Princeton Middle
Grove City
Healy Secondary, Pierz
South Junior High, St. Cloud
Mankato
Kennedy Community, St. Joseph
Mankato West
Apollo High School, St. Cloud
St. John's Prep, Collegeville
Tech High School, St. Cloud
Princeton High School
Sartell Middle School
ROCORI, Cold Spring

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