SSMS Robotics, Miller Grove compete at state
Two Hopkins County Middle School robotics teams competed at the State tournament on Saturday, for VEX VRC robotics tournament. Miller Grove and Sulphur Springs both had teams representing their schools for the competition. Miller Grove had two teams competing while Sulphur Springs had one team in the VEX VRC challenge. The Sulphur Springs 7th grade robotics team competed across town in a VEX IQ State challenge as well.
Both schools faced off against challengers from all over the State. The students were able to learn a lot from other teams and find ways to improve upon their robots for future competitions. You can read about how the teams can earn points from a pervious Front Porch News story. “The competition made for a long day, but it was fun and enjoyable,” stated Cooper Thesing.
All three teams made an alliance and were in the final rounds. Sulphur Springs and one of the Miller Grove teams were able to advance to the Quarterfinals where, unfortunately both teams lost and did not advance any further. Those teams that did advance had the most points and brought their aligned team with them to the next round.
In a best two out of three final match, one team took the win by only having to compete in two matches. Those two teams have an automatic bid to the World competition held at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Center later this Spring. Miller Grove did not walk away with nothing, their all-girl team won the Judges Award which is awarded to the “Team deserving recognition from Judges for special accomplishments (Judged).”
One of the best scenes from the competition was when a team was getting ready to compete and their end game misfired early. If the clock had started the team would have been disqualified, but since it had not, they were able to remove their robot from the field of play and pull in all the end game pieces that fired out. Their teammates and the team they were going against all came together to help pull in the end game before their time out ended. This display of sportsmanship made really showed how much all the kids have learned to work together during this competition.
Overall, all the teams representing Hopkins County did a great job and enjoyed their time in the field. A special thanks to all the coaches and parents who helped support these students through out the year and helped them to make it to this competition.
Contributed by Allison Libby-Thesing
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpQP8pNzNT5ml9CqehzJEqA
