GMR seniors Jaustyn Dahl and Chloe Vanderport hold up their team’s numbers as they sit in the crowd and cheer at the Cobo Center in Detroit last week.
GMR Robotics team drivers Kyle Stauffenecker and Robert Hlucny focus in during a round at the FIRST Robotics World Championship, which took place at the Cobo Center in Detroit, April 25-28.
Some GMR Robotics team members pose for a group photo during their visit to Detroit for the FIRST Robotics World Championship. They are: Front (L-R): John Novacek, Sarah Stanelle, Aubre Berg, Amy Stauffenecker, Rhiana Utter, and Kaiya Novacek; Back: Jonathan Peterson, Kristy Williamson, Piper Sondreal, Issie Brockhouse, Emily McLean, Jaustyn Dahl, Chloe Vanderport, Cammi Cain, and Christian Wahl.
GMR robotics team member Jonathan Peterson does some cheering at the FIRST Robotics World Championship in Detroit last week. (submitted photos)
The Greenbush-Middle River Gator Robotics team’s charter bus pulled away from DRB Fabrication in Greenbush just before 6:30 am, as the sun was rising on April 24, and drove down the road to make the 17-hour journey to the FIRST Robotics World Championship at the Cobo Center in Detroit, April 25-28.
Despite not advancing as far as they wanted, the Gator Robotics team members enjoyed the experience for various reasons, including the chance to see and meet up with some familiar and new faces from near and far. Having returned home on Sunday, April 29, some Gator senior team members shared a few words about the experience.
At the World Championship, the Gators, team #5172, competed in the 67-team Tesla Division. The Gators finished with a 6-4 record in the qualification rounds. Then, it came time for the championship rounds and alliance selection.
Team #1712, Dawgma from Ardmore, Pa., the captain of the sixth alliance, selected the Gators as an alliance partner, an invite the Gators accepted. Team #1712 also selected Team #5567, Code Red Robotics, from Milan, Mich., as the other alliance partner, and chose Team#1506, Metal Muscle from Flint, Mich., as a back-up team.
In the quarterfinals, the Gator team’s alliance would face off against an alliance made up of Team #2590, Nemesis, from Robbinsville, N.J., Team #2614, Mountaineer Area RoboticS (MARS), from Morgantown, W. Va., and Team #708, Hatters Robotics, from Horsham, Pa.. The Gator alliance would fall in the best-of-three series by scores of 466-358 and 429-337 to see its World Championship run come to an end.
Beyond the competition itself, the Gators also had the opportunity to see and meet up with people within and outside Minnesota. The GMR team even took a group photo with all the Minnesota teams at the World Championship. Senior Gator Robotics team member Emily McLean enjoyed the World Championship experience for the chance to not only bond with her own team, but another Minnesota team that her team has developed a bond with over time.
“It was an awesome experience to go down to Worlds and we just had a lot of team bonding with Team 1816 (from Edina
Minn.).”
The robotics season is not done yet. Both Gator robotics teams, #5172 from Greenbush-Middle River and #3750 from Badger, will compete in the Minnesota State High School League State Tournament, May 19, 2018, from the Mariucci Arena at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. So, stay tuned!
To see the complete story, read the May 2 issue of The Tribune.
