The Robo Jays Packed Their Tools and Traveled to O’Neill
by Autumn Hanna
The Pierce Robotics team headed to their last competition of the year in O’Neill, at the 2nd annual O’Neill Eagles VEX Robotics Tournament, on January 16, 2021. Pierce sent two teams, Ok Idea and Fresh Scrap, which placed 11th and 12th respectively out of 18 other teams.
The first team was Ok Idea, which was made up of captain Matthew Steffen, Dalton Svoboda, Tate Reinke, and Nicholas Lienemann. They went up against O’Neill in the first round of finals and ended up losing.
The second team Fresh Scrap was Bo Bockelman, Madelyn Hanson, Camden Jansen, Noah Jones, Brentyn Rampone, and Peyton Wieting. This team had a similar ending, they went up against Battle Creek and lost, but still ended up in 12th place.
Junior Dalton Svoboda comments on the season, “I was proud of our performance overall. I felt everything went a lot smoother than the last time. When we got there, we were greeted with stiff and fierce competition. Not gonna lie I was scared; scared things weren’t going to go as planned. Sometimes that’s the way life goes. Sometimes life pushes you down and you have to get back up. When my team and I got pushed down, we bounced back like a trampoline. Problems defeated us in the first half of the day. Going 0-3 to start is hard to get back up from, but we persevered and ended the qualification matches with a 4-4 record which found us a slot in the finals. Making the finals was really my main goal of the day. Once we made the finals, I just got hungrier and wanted the 1st place trophy. Unfortunately, life hit us a little harder, and we got the 5th seed and had some tough competition who did knock us out of the finals. We still got back up but had nowhere to go this time. I couldn’t be happier with not only my team but the other team and their performance. It was a very fun experience. I have everything to give to my teammates, Matt, Tate, and Nicholas, who could be there and carry [us] and do more than I could imagine when I wasn’t able to be there. I would also like to thank Mrs. Dostal for taking us down to O’Neill and waking up at 5:30 in the morning just so a couple of kids could come to school and build a robot. I can’t wait to come back next year and do some of the punching.”
Coach Treva Dostal says,”Both teams were very competitive during qualifying. We were pleased with our performance and look forward to the announcement of next year's game.”
The Pierce Robo Jays had a shortened season due to the coronavirus.
