The Jefferson-Craig Elementary School Robotics Team — the ‘Riverbotics’ — took part in the Indiana VEX IQ State Robotics competition this past Saturday in Indianapolis — and had an outstanding day.
The team ended the day finishing second overall in the entire state — missing out on a State Championship by just one point.
Out of the approximately 900 schools in Indiana that have robotic teams, 150 earn the right to compete at the state competition. Those 150 teams are broken down into three divisions, with 50 teams in each division.
“We started the day slowly, ranking as low as 38th before lunch,” Jeff-Craig coach Brian Grigsby said. “After our lunch break, the team started to find their rhythm. They began to slowly climb the leaderboard. They needed to finish in the top 20 to qualify for division finals. They were fourth in their division — qualifying them for the finals.”
Grigsby said that the 20 teams that qualified for the division finals had one last run in a “winner takes all” style. Jefferson-Craig’s ‘Riverbotics’ worked with Cold Spring Magnet School, which scored the highest score in the entire competition with 199 points.
The winning teams in each division competed one last time to get an overall state winner. Working with Cold Springs again, the teams scored 170 points — missing out on being the overall state champions by one point.
“We are very proud of our team,” Grigsby said. “They represented Switzerland County very well for the second year in a row. Winning our division qualifies Jefferson Craig’s ‘Riverbotics’ for the World VEX IQ Competition, taking place in Louisville, Kentucky April 29th through May 1st.”
The team is also coached by Connie Ingels; and the team will be traveling to Council Bluffs, Iowa, next month to participate in a competition.
Team members include: 1st row: Cale Collier, Logan Crepin, Davin Humbert & Johnathan Sweeney
2nd row: Mrs. Ingels, Aaryan Soni, Evan Bosaw, Cooper Todd, & Patty Miller
3rd row: Alex Smith, Bradley Romans, Brayden South & Mr. Grigsby