2 District Five teams qualify for VEX Robotics World Competition

Students from a Lexington-Richland District Five middle school are heading to an international robotics contest, after earning top prizes at this year’s state contest.

For the second year in a row, Dutch Fork Middle School will send students to the VEX Robotics World Competition. Dutch Fork Middle’s Team A won the Excellence Award at the state competition in March, while Team B won the Design Award. The groups from District Five are two of three middle school teams to qualify and represent South Carolina at the World Championship April 20-23 in Louisville, Kentucky.

“We are so proud of them,” said Lola Whitworth, Dutch Fork Middle teacher and VEX Robotics coach. “The Excellence Award is the highest award you can receive at a VEX Robotics Competition, and Team B’s Design Award was the first time there has been a middle school Design Award in the state. Having two teams going to the World contest is truly amazing. These students worked hard and it showed at the state competition. We can’t wait to see how they’ll do at Worlds.”

Presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, the VEX Robotics Competition is an annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activity for middle and high school students worldwide.  This year’s “Nothing But Net” theme challenged players to design and build robots that would launch balls into high and low goals. Additional points were earned by elevating the robot in a designated climbing zone.

Team A members include: Arjun Verma, Sofia Guerrero and Garret Dawson. Alex Perez, Bryson Turner, Guytano Mancine, Tyler Overbay, Kaden Bera and Tommy Pinkney are members of Team B. The teams have started a GoFundMe page to help fund their trip to Worlds: https://www.gofundme.com/jyu6th35

“This is another example of the tradition of excellence we have at Dutch Fork Middle,” said Dr. Gerald Gary, principal of the school. “Our students excel in academics and extracurricular activities, and VEX Robotics allows them to combine classroom lessons with real-world applications. We applaud their dedication, hard work and accomplishments and wish them luck as they represent our school and state at the VEX World Competition.”

Last year’s team had a good showing at the VEX World Competition, finishing in the top ten for its engineering notebook. Sofia Guerrero, a member of that team, said she’s excited to return to Worlds but knows there’s a lot of work to do in preparation.

“When I heard that we got to World, I screamed very loud…I was absolutely ecstatic because I felt like all my hard work had paid off,” she said. “Our focus is now on World, and there’s a long, long list of things we need to do. Every day we’re coming in, we’re working hard, we’re checking things off that list…This year, we’re going to be more prepared.”

Teammates Tyler Overbay and Arjun Verma said they look forward to experiences and learning more at the worldwide competition.

“It’s a big deal,” Overbay said. “We’ve had to work really hard and put in many hours. So, it’s a great honor to get to go to World and compete against so many people.”

Verman added, “The thing I’m most looking forward to at World is the diversity of all the teams that’s there. There are thousands of teams coming, so there are going to be a bunch of robots and a bunch of different cultures because they are from all around the world.”

For Alexander Perez, it was the first year on a VEX Robotics team. “It feels really good to go to World my first year. When we heard the announcement it was just like ‘No, not us.’ No one expected it, but it was pretty cool. What am I expecting at World?..A really big building, a lot of people, and hopefully food.”

VEX attracts students for a variety of reasons, Guerrero said. “Everybody pretty much knows this, but I am a perfectionist. So to be able to go through the process, design something and have it not work the first 80 times before you get it to work perfectly, that is really fulfilling to me.”

The Dutch Fork Middle School students pictured here are heading to the VEX Robotics World Competition. Dutch Fork Middle’s Team A won the Excellence Award at the state competition in March, while Team B won the Design Award. The groups from District Five are two of three middle school teams to qualify and represent South Carolina at the World Championship April 20-23 in Louisville, Kentucky.