February 12, 2016 at 2:01 p.m.
Rhinelander Robotics Club fares well at state
Rhinelander Robotics Club fares well at state
The team qualified for the state tournament by winning the Fox Valley Regional qualifier in January at Hortonville High School.
Friday's event consisted of the team and robot navigating strict inspection criteria where tournament officials ensure that the robot fits all hardware and software parameters as established in the tournament rules, the school district said in a press release.
"The Rhinelander team had its robot set well within those boundaries and they were eager to compete the following day," the release states. "Saturday morning the Robo-Hodags participated in the judging portion of the event, which included an interview from a panel of judges made up of engineers and professors from UWM, and were required to answer a series of questions pertaining to the learning process experienced by the group of aspiring engineers. These questions ranged from technical questions about the robot to fundraising and community outreach programs that the club is involved with. The students did a great job of representing Rhinelander and the entire Northwoods throughout the judging process."
Competition matches began shortly after the judging portion of the event and concluded with the Robo-Hodags competing against the eventual state champions from Hortonville, the release states.
"The first of five matches for the day ended with the Robo-Hodags experiencing what would be their only catastrophic failure of the competition when their robot flipped over on its back while attempting to climb the mountain obstacle, leaving them unable to score any points and resulting in their only loss of the preliminary rounds," the release states. "The next four matches saw the Robo-Hodags, led by senior captain Adam Engel, junior captain Marshall Dana, and senior competition coach and captain Bailey Nebgen, along with their alliances, sweep up the preliminary competition and finish the qualifying rounds with an outstanding record of four wins and one loss. With those four wins, the Robo-Hodags came storming back to receive the fourth and final seed, setting them up with a chance to compete at the national tournament held in St. Louis. From the remaining 20 teams not seeded, the Robo-Hodags had to choose two of those teams that would form a three-team alliance and compete in the coveted championship rounds. After a quick meeting and discussion, it was decided that 'The Phoenix' from Madison and 'Great Scott!' from Homestead High School in Mequon would be asked to become alliances with the Robo-Hodags. Engel, in front of a crowd of about 200 people, would graciously invite the two teams to join the Robo-Hodags, the only team from northern Wisconsin, into the exciting final rounds. As expected, those two teams would graciously accept the Robo-Hodags' invitation. The championship rounds consisted of the best of three semifinal matches in which the alliance teams of the Robo-Hodags would be matched with the three teams from the No. 1 seed. Seeds two and three would be staged against each other in the other half of the championship bracket, setting up what would be one final "best of three series" to see who moved on to St Louis."
The Robo-Hodags chose to have the high-scoring Phoenix be their first match alliance as their average scores were a bit higher than that of Great Scott!, the release states.
"The first round went well for the blue alliance with the Robo-Hodags team coming out on top by over 100 points. The second match in the best out of three series would go to red alliance team of 'Straight Out of Wiscomption,' and 'That Team!' from Homestead High. It was in match two that the Robo-Hodags began to experience an intermittent problem with the right hand drive motor which resulted in a lower score than normal from the Rhinelander team, setting up the elimination match with the winner moving to the state championship," the release states. "With only about five minutes between matches, the team had no chance to switch the failing motor but held hope it would last. The final match started out well for the blue alliance with the Robo-Hodags positioning themselves to earn enough points to win the match and move to the final. However, the drive motor that slowed them in the previous match finally gave out and all the team could do is watch as the opposing alliance scored enough points to hand them the defeat."
To learn more about the club or to arrange a robotics demonstration, contact Mike Wojtusik at [email protected].
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