Team 6008D with their Finalist & Design Awards at Vex World Championship
Pictured left to right: Dalton Skaggs, Gavin Zwayer, Avery Zwayer, Derek Ballinger, Madaline Ardrey, Logan Suiter
On April 24th, Jodie Kavanagh and Kristi Matlack took 16 students and 3 robots to the Vex World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. They joined 579 other high school robotics teams from 35 different countries, sharing the joy of robotic competition. These teams represented the top 7% of the best teams in the world. They were separated into 6 divisions where they participated in 10 matches each, paired with random opponents and partners. At the end of these matches, teams are ranked and given the opportunity to alliance with their own partners. These alliances are referred to as “seeds,” with each seed having 2 competing robots for the tournament. This tournament portion of the competition consists of 16 seeds with 32 robots.
Team 6608D, Delta Force, finished 7-3 and ranked 20th in
their division out of 97 teams. They allianced with a team from Shanghai, China
to compete in the 4th seed. This alliance was able to win their way
all the way to the finals! They lost this match and missed the round robin by a
very narrow margin. Team 6008A, The A Team, finished 6-4 and ranked 24th
in their division out of 97 teams. They allianced with a team from Wisconsin to
compete in the 7th seed. This alliance was able to win their way all
the way to the semi-finals. Team 6008Z, The Blind Squirrels, finished 5-5 and
ranked 55th in their division out of 96 teams. Although our North Union teams didn’t win every match they performed very well. Close study of the results shows that the North Union robots carried their weight in every match!
Students
participating in Vex Robotics have additional competition opportunities. Team
6008D, Delta Force, worked very hard on their engineering notebook and
interview skills. These efforts paid off when they won the Design Award in
their division. In addition, Team 6008A, The A Team, participated in an online
challenge. This is similar to an extra credit project and The A Team chose to complete
the Recycle Challenge. They used old playing pieces from seven years of
competition to build a sensory table for the special needs room at the
elementary school. The judges were very impressed with both the design and the
purpose of the table and awarded The A Team with first prize in this category.
North
Union High School has had the privilege of sending teams to the World
Championship for the past 6 years. However, this is the first year that we were
able to qualify three teams. This is also the first year that we had teams competing
in the tournament. These North Union teams competed very well and our community
should be very proud of their efforts and results.