The Tallmadge Middle School Robotics Club (TMSRC) and Munroe Elementary Robotics Club (MERC) recently competed in the 32nd Annual National Robotics Challenge (NRC) in Marion, Ohio on April 12th, 13th and 14th. This year’s competition featured more than 1300 elementary, middle school, high school and post-secondary competitors, along with 450 robots from across the nation and abroad. The two Tallmadge club’s traveled to the NRC challenge with 29 middle school and 11 elementary students, while competing in 8 separate robotics contests. The teams represented their community well by being one of the top school districts earning 12 awards overall. The Munroe Elementary team was coached by advisors Dan Bishop, Jenell Wood, and Tony Leipold with assistance from Dave Christ and Margie & Alan Seibert. The middle school team was coached by advisors Justin Christopher, Rich Day, and Chad Nash with assistance from building Principal Jeffrey Manion and Secretary Anne Kostko.
The MERC competed exceptionally well considering that all of the students are band new to robotics and have never competed against any other schools before. Munroe students Alaina Wood, Abby Leipold and Brooke Davis placed 1st in Elementary Bot Ball earning a Gold Award. Additionally in Elementary Bot Ball, Chase Christ, Henri Seibert and Bryce Elijah earned a 2nd place Silver Award. In the Non-Tactile Maze event where the robots are required to navigate the maze without touching the walls, Luke Day and Jacob Bishop earned a 1st place Gold; while Nathan Bishop, Ian Bee and Dylan Manion earned a 2nd place Silver.
The highlight of the competition for the Munroe teams was the Innovation Award nomination from the Honda Engineering judges for Jacob Bishop, Nathan Bishop, Luke Day, Ian Bee and Dylan Manion’s Robo-Hockey robots. The Robo-Hockey event requires teams to design a pair of robots that work in conjunction with each other to try and score more goals than their opponent. This competition is generally only for middle school, high school and colleges, so the elementary students had to enter the middle school level to be able to compete. “The boy’s robots were unique in that they utilized a spinning wheel on a pivoting arm that could fire the hockey puck at a high rate of speed at a great distance – their robots were truly an innovative disruptor to what any of the judges or competitors have ever seen before”, said Middle school advisor Rich Day. The young team ultimately earned a 2nd place Silver going up against middle school students in eighth grade.
The TMSRC also battled extremely well in each of the events they entered and earned a 1st place Gold in Middle School Bot Ball, 1st Place Gold in Middle School Mantis Weight Combat , 1st Place Gold in Beetle Weight Combat, 1st Place Gold in Ultimate Combat, 3rd Place in Ultimate Combat and 3rd Place in Bot-Ball. Christopher said, “The TMSRC had a couple of highlights this year and some unexpected success in events that we were not sure how we would do… winning gold in the middle school Mantis Weight Combat, Gold in the Middle School Beetle Weight Combat, and then Gold in the Ultimate Combat was really unbelievable”. The combat robot divisions feature 6 pound or less Mantis weight robots, 3 pound or less Beetle weight robots, and 3 pound or less plastic Beetle weight robots.
Logan Gibson, Richie Day and Jeffrey Summers designed the Mantis Weight Combat robot – a six pound or less robot that battled its way to 1st Place Gold in the Middle School division and then later to Gold in the open Ultimate Combat division outlasting all other robots to earn bragging rights as the roughest, toughest robot in the tournament. The students utilized a deadly aluminum spinning blade that local water jet manufacturer Ward Jet cut out for the students based on their Auto-Cad design of the weapon. Earning a Gold Award in their division, The 6th grade Beetle Weight combat team of Josie Mothersbaugh, Bobbi Kostko, Colin Adams and Molly Christopher became the darlings of the competition with their little speedster robot that utilized a wedge design in upending its opponents. The two TMSRC Combat teams ended up facing each other in the open Ultimate Combat arena with a closely contested split judge’s decision giving the 6th graders 3rd place and allowing Gibson, Day and Summers to ultimately win it all in the final rounds.
In the first time ever at the National Robotics Challenge, the 8th grade Bot Ball team of Richie Day, Isaac Bee, Tom Hoang and Ethan McConihe did the unbelievable task of scoring a perfect 146 points in not one, but two rounds of the three round Middle School Bot Ball tournament. This achievement earned the young men not only a 1st place Gold in the event, but also bragging rights as the only team in any age division to ever accomplish this feat. Finishing in a close third place with a score of 136 points in Bot Ball was the Tallmadge trio of Dylan Donnell, Evan Upole and Grace Kostko. Day said, “Dylan’s goal was to get at least 130 points, so as a 7th grader I believe that he will be able to design and program a robot for next year that will be able to achieve a perfect score depending on how the event is changed for next year”.
Attending the event as both a parent and school administrator, Tallmadge Middle School Principal, Jeff Manion commented, “I could not be more proud of our Munroe Elementary and Middle School Robotics Teams over the past three days. Our students showed great teamwork, knowledge, and sportsmanship at every turn”. The community can come and see the award winning Munroe Elementary and Tallmadge Middle School Robotics Clubs display and demonstrate their robots at the K-5 Family STEAM Night on April 26 from 5:30 to 7:00 at the Tallmadge High School Rotunda and Library.