Monday, May 12, 2025
HAYS – On Monday, March 31st the BJSHS Junior High Robotics Club and BES Robotics club traveled to FHSU to attend their Lego Robotics Tournament. This competition was for 4th through 8th grade students and there were 24 schools from all over the state with 285 students participating.
The BJSHS Robotics Club this year consisted of Gracin Harris, Emmery Manning, Rowan Richards, Halle Burke, Bella Ludwig, Kemper Adams, Toryn Krier, Chris Gantz, Tyler Binder, Brenden Spear, Ophir Mejia, Brevin Schroeder, Eli Gengler, Trey Miner, Cayson Ullom, Dax Elam, Steele Pruitt, Declan Thompson, Kingston Stewart, Gavin Nicholson and Zeppelynn Mast. The BES Robotics club consisted of Graham Jankowski, Kenton McGuire, Ciera Clark, Colt Eilert, Keller King, Connor Fouts, Easton Eberle, Knox Harr, Boyd Tice, Dayton Zimmer, Wakefield Fincham, Luke Eitzmann, Olivia Owen, Ryker Loomis, Kash Pruitt, Kael Rabe, Miles Litton, Tucker Schwerman, and Lucas Martin.
The 1st competition was Sorting Colors with 40 teams participating. The teams had to build a robot that had a colored sensor to follow a black line and see Red and Blue M&M’s. When it saw the M&M’s it had to have a medium motor with a device that would sort the M&M’s to the left or right of the line depending on the color and keep going down the black line until they were all sorted. We had 5 teams compete in this event and all teams were able to follow the line and sort at least some of the 10 M&Ms. The team of Kemper Adams, Toryn Krier, Brenden Spear, and Dax Elam were able to get 3rd place in this competition. The team of Gracin Harris, Emmery Manning, Rowan Richards, Halle Burke, and Bella Ludwig got 4th place.
The 2nd competition was Following the Line with 42 teams participating. It had the students code their robots to follow a line that had a Y shape using a colored sensor and then when it got close to an object it had to turn around and follow the line back to the start. We had 5 teams that competed in this as well. The team of Kenton Mcguire, Ciera Clark, and Tucker Schwerman were able to come home with 1st place. The team of Kemper Adams, Toryn Krier, Brenden Spear, and Dax Elam were able to get 2nd place in this competition and the team of Chris Gantz, Tyler Binder, Eli Gengler, and Zeppelynn Mast were able to get 3rd place. Steele Pruitt, Declan Thompson, Kingston Stewart, and Gavin Nicholson got 4th place.
The third competition was the Whoops event with 59 teams participating. The teams had to build a robot to traverse across a PVC ladder on the floor so they had to be able to go up and over obstacles. We had 3 teams in this event and 2 out of 3 were able to successfully complete this event, however we just missed the top 3 teams on time.
Our last competition was the Sumo Battle, and it was the most anticipated competition of the whole day. The SUMO BATTLE is always a fun, competitive atmosphere where two autonomous robots battle off on a mat to see which Bot can push the other robot off the mat first. The focus of this competition is the design of the robot and to be able to code the robot for multiple scenarios to prepare it for battle. The robot runs off coding alone and is not driven by the students. The battle started out with 60 teams in a single elimination bracket play off. We had all but 1 team of students participating in this event and many teams made it past the 1st and 2nd round, and even 3rd round. The team of Connor Fouts, Graham Jankowski, Ryker Loomis, and Lucas Martin were able to come home as the SUMO Champions.The team of Kemper Adams, Toryn Krier, Brenden Spear, and Dax Elam were able to tie for 1st place in team points and the team of Ciera Clark, Kenton McGuire, and Tucker Schwerman were able to tie for 2nd place in team points.
“The BJSHS and BES Robotics Club represented their school well and showed sportsmanship to all throughout the day. These students are learning future job skills in Technology/Engineering/Robotic fields and learning how to problem solve and collaborate when things aren’t going their way.” Mr. Adams, BES Robotics teacher, and Mrs. Fouts, BJSHS Robotics teacher, are very proud of their students and the hard work they put into getting ready for this competition.
