(KNSI) – Machines have taken over the River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud for the First Robotics Granite City Regional tournament.
Jake Judd/KNSI News
High school and middle school teams can qualify for a chance to compete on the world stage in Houston with a good showing the next two days. Sartell launched a sixth through eighth-grade team this year. KNSI News caught up with Light Sabres Middle School Coach Mary Swanson, who said this is the kids’ first and only event of the year. “It’ll be exciting to see how they handle the pressure and the excitement of the tournament.”
Swanson, there is one lesson these first-time students learned the hard way, “A lot goes into manufacturing your own parts for a robot, and patience is key because you have to learn to adjust what you did and redo it. Some things on our robot were done six or seven times until we got it right.”
Sartell’s high school team was also getting their robots dialed-in ahead of the competition. Driver Adam Bertsch is hoping for a chance at a title. “We’ve been preparing since January for this event, and last week, we had a very late playoffs exit. We were very close to the finals. So we’re going to really try and push to get to the finals to qualify for the World Championship.” The team finished fourth, just outside of qualifying for the next event.
Allison Zhang is one of the programmers and says they’re making their final tweaks but need to be delicate. “The hardest part is the code is in the spot where if we change things, we need to make sure it works fully before we actually push them. We have to be really careful about what we change because we are in a good spot, and if we want to be in a better spot, we need to be really careful.”
Sartell has one of the largest teams in the state with 46 members and is the only public school with a varsity and junior varsity squad.
Jake Judd/KNSI News
The ROCORI Ratcheteers won a state title in 2023 and have already punched their ticket to the world competition thanks to a regional win two weeks ago in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Assistant coach Amy Krohn shared their secret to building a contender. “We actually manufacture much of our components in-house. So, we are looking at quality every step of the way. We also have a great team of mentors that are really coaching these students along every step and having them side by side building this robot from the ground up.”
Krohn says that takes some of the pressure off this weekend and will allow them to use the event as a chance to improve. “We are actually even looking at enhancing our robot. We’re going to be adding some new components. We’re hoping for worlds. And so these guys are constantly looking at how do we take what works really well and make it even better.”
Along with Sartell and ROCORI, 48 teams are registered for the event, including Annandale, Sauk Rapids-Rice, Albany, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, Becker, Eden Valley-Watkins, and Sauk Centre.
The action takes place from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Spectators enter the convention center free of charge.
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