Robotics Teams Place First and Third

February 21, 2012 by Laurie Venteicher

Three teams of Pierce High students competed in a robotics competition on February 18 at the Frey Conference Center at Wayne State College with a 10:00 a.m. start time. O’Neill and Battle Creek also competed, sending two teams and one team, respectively. Northeast Community College and Wayne State College also sent teams that competed in a different division.

The Pierce Panther team won first place overall. The Panthers are Kody Dunn, Colin Magdanz, and Melinda Ussery. They perfectly accomplished the programmed event to score 600 points, finishing 500 points higher than the second-place team. They also scored more total points than either of the college teams.

The Pierce Noble team took third place overall. The Nobles are Blake Douglass, Micah Bahnfleth, Jacob Jones, and Briton Rodenborg.

Pierce’s final team, the Wolves, consists of Michael Benson, Alex Retzlaff, and Gus Ussery. While the Wolves did not place, Mrs. Dostal, robotics sponsor, said that all three teams worked very hard.

Each team created a robot to complete the three events in the competition. The three events were remote controlled, completely programmed, and a combination of the two.

The next contest is Saturday, April 21, at the Sunset Plaza Mall in Norfolk. The competition will begin at 10:00 a.m.

Mrs. Dostal was very proud of her teams. “Simplicity and consistency proved to be the recipe for success for the Pierce Panther team,” she said.

Panther Ussery said, “The competition was fun. Overall, we did pretty well. I was excited when we found out that we beat the college score!”