Marshfield Robotics Teams Receive Awards in VEX Competitive Robotics Contest

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022 -- 8:14 AM

The School District of Marshfield Robotics Team has received awards in the VEX Competitive Robotics Contest.

This marks the 5th school year for the School District of Marshfield Robotics Team. Some of their team members, who are seniors, have been participating and competing since the very first year when they were in 8th grade.

Throughout this time Caleb Henderson, Technology Education teacher, and Shawn Trudeau, former Technology Education teacher and current Technology Integration Specialist for the district, have been co-advisors. This school year 3 teams competed at regional events in Wausau, Fond Du Lac, and Rice Lake.

Team captains Aidan Vandre and Ellak Flannigan-Warren dedicate countless hours both inside and outside of school planning, designing, building, testing, watching match film, and documenting their design process.

Their passion and hard work make the success of this season so special as it is a culmination of years of learning and work. Even though this is a competitive event that pits the Marshfield teams against one another they still work together to overcome challenges and have strong comradery.

Both Team 27905B “Provolone,” consisting of all Seniors, Aiden Vandre, Jordan Beil, Simon Kloos, and Jacob Thompson, and 27905C “Muskrats,” consisting of Junior Ellak Flannigan-Warren, Sophomore Riley Degner, Junior Sonia Dissanayake, Senior Logan Seibel, and Senior Matt Kloehn, had exemplary seasons and were invited to compete in the Wisconsin State Tournament.

Team 27905B had been crowned “Tournament Champion” at two of the three regional events they attended. They also earned the most coveted “Excellence Award” at those two events which is the highest honor in Vex Robotics.

To earn this award, teams must not only have a highly competitive robot, but also great documentation of their design, teamwork, programming, and driving in the skills contest. At the State Championship 27905B was a state finalist and also won the “Amaze” award.

Both of which were world contest qualifiers. Team 27905C spent most of their time leading up the state contest designing and building a pneumatically shifted transmission as part of their robot.

This left little time for driving practice making early qualifications matches at the state contest challenging. Their efforts on design were rewarded though winning the “Build” award, and with it a world contest qualification spot.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.