VWHS Robotics Team wins competition

VW independent/submitted information

Recently, Van Wert High School’s Robotics Team traveled to Cleveland to compete in the Northeast Ohio Cleveland Regional Qualifier.

After the first five matches, Van Wert was in fourth place with a record of 4-1 heading into the semifinals. The VWHS Robotics Team then joined up with the No. 1 seed and the super-alliance dominated the best of three semifinals winning two straight matches and, again in the finals, winning the first two matches to take home the Winning Alliance trophy.

In addition to winning the competition, the Van Wert team won the Promote Award given to the team with the most outstanding video submission highlighting STEM, robotics, and the team. The VWHS team also won the most prestigious award, the Inspire Award.

“The Inspire Award winner is an inspiration to other teams, acting with gracious professionalism both on and off the playing field,” reads the award description. “This team is able to communicate their experiences, enthusiasm, and knowledge to other teams, sponsors, their community, and the judges. Working as a unit, this team will have demonstrated success in accomplishing the task of designing and building a robot.”

In addition to winning the Northwest Region qualifier, the VWHS Robotics Team will host the Northwest Ohio Regional Competition, which takes place Saturday, January 30, with 28 teams arriving in Van Wert on Friday night.

The competition is made possible only through the generous donations of sponsors. The title sponsors are once again Central Insurance Company and A&P Tool. Coaches Bob Spath and Zane McElroy are ecstatic over the opportunity to host this tournament.

“The high school/middle school complex, with the NPAC, offers us an amazing venue to host a robotics competition,” Spath said. “We have been to numerous other competitions sites and none of them come close to what we have available to us at our school.

“We want to thank Bill Purmort and Tony Nighswonger for being our title sponsors,” McElroy added.

The competition opening ceremonies are at 10:15 a.m., with match play beginning immediately afterwards. There is no entry fee and he public is invited to come out to see the Robotics Competition.