MSHSL Press Release and Recap

This past weekend, FRC Team 3313 Mechatronics from Jefferson High School in Alexandria, MN competed at the MN State Championship. The team had a marvelous time, even when the rest of the competition did not go as planned.

The MN State Robotics Competition is a MSHSL sanctioned event. The competition was held at Williams Arena on the U of M - Twin Cities campus. Out of 180 teams in MN, the top 30 qualified for the event. Teams qualified based off results at previous events. Going into the competition, the team from Alexandria, MN was ranked 3rd overall out of 180 teams. Robots played the game called Ultimate Ascent where individual robots shoot Frisbees for points and climbed metal pyramids.

Team 3313 arrived at Williams Arena on Friday night and had their robot inspected. The inspection did not go as planned and some issues arose. However, after some quick thinking, it was ready to go on Saturday morning. Tyler Floding, a 10th grader on the team, did a fantastic job fixing a wheel issue on the robot. Brandon Thoennes, a senior, also had some innovative ideas for fixing inspection problems. As Lacey Werman, a junior, said, “Many other sports team would have gotten extremely discouraged. But not us. I couldn’t ask to be on a better team.”

There were no practice matches so Mechatronics had some issues during the first few matches in the morning. The drive team of Brandon Thoennes, Dalton Myhr, and Bryce Klang had not competed since March but performed admirably throughout the tournament. Zack Gilbertson, Carson Stowe, many other team members did a great job scouting other teams and getting the drivers prepared for future matches.

In the afternoon matches, the team ran into some really tough competition. Allen Odden, a senior on the team, agreed, “With fewer teams competing, you had time to figure out how all of the teams were doing, and not just a select few.”

Mechatronics ended up finishing 3-5 in 8 matches and 19th place out of 30. Team 3313 did not make it into the playoffs of the competition. However, making it to State is a grand accomplishment in and of itself.

The team worked well throughout the competition and always had a positive attitude. This was the last competition of the year for FRC Team 3313 Mechatronics. It’s sad to say goodbye to our seniors but we will keep the fun memories forever. Molly Schouweiler, a junior, put it best, “All in all, I love everything and everybody in my robo-family!”.

Keep up with Team 3313 Mechatronics through their website http://www.team3313.com