At the start of this year, there was going to be no robotics competitions. “Each year's competitions are made by CreateFoundation out of Omaha, Nebraska,” says Adam Whitmore, coach of the Columbus High School Robotics Club. Whitmore, along with other coaches from eight different schools worked together to create several dual competitions with each other for this year. Based on the results from the dual competitions, who had the highest scores from driving skills and autonomous (a program where the robot runs on its own) mode, decided who earned a spot in the state competition.

On Saturday, March 27, 2021, the Columbus High School Robotics Club took four teams to the State Competition at St. Paul High School. The high school team, Meerschweinchen-meaning little sea pigs in German, consisted of seniors Jessica Reiff, Sarah Massman, Ellie Trotter, and Zoi Gobel. Another high school team, Hexadecimalunicorns, was composed of freshmen Ryland Prokopec and Chase Ditter. At this tournament, Hexadecimalunicorns earned a personal best driving skill score with a 54! The middle school team, Enter Name Here, was made up of eighth-graders Lia Wickens, Hannah Moser, Emmanuel Student Nyk Rutten, and seventh-grader, Keedyn Kreppel. Along with Hexadecimalunicorns, the team Enter Name Here also earned a personal best driving score with a 66! The final team that earned an opportunity to go was Loose Bolts. Loose Bolts was made up of eighth-graders Jack Kreber, Duncan Rosno, Nathaniel Navarrete, and Cash Thelen.

No two years of robotics competitions are the same competition. In this competition, teams had to build a robot that would take the corresponding colored balls and place them into scores. All of the scores were the same heights and were eighteen inches tall. The robot should also have the ability to defensively descore balls. The goal was to have the alliance color that corresponded to what team a person was on be on top. Along with that, teams earned points when they lined the balls up in rows inside the goals. 

At the start of the State Competition, the teams did well and finished in the 3rd, 4th, 13th, and 15th seeds after three qualifying matches. From there, however, the events did not go as planned. The Columbus teams were paired up with not the best alliance selection and had a lot of bad luck. “Who we got paired up for with alliance selections was the worst part”, said Sarah Massman senior member of the Meerschweinchen team. “We were paired against Cross County who you don’t want against you.” Following alliance selections was a single-elimination bracket knocking out the Columbus teams rather quickly. “We lost by four points!” Massman added sadly. Even though things did not go as planned, there were still some positives. “Getting to have a competition that feels normal compared to everything else this season was the best part. I also have learned how to document with monument details and work well with others.” Massman concluded. 

In summary, thanks to Whitmore arranging duals with other schools, there was a robotics season this year. The end was not what many had hoped for, but through all of the bumps in the road that the teams had or the worry of not even having a season, at least they finished. Overall, the Columbus High School Robotics program continues to grow even down to the middle schoolers. “We are entering our fifth open tournament season,” Whitmore says, “Now the goal is for Columbus to host a tournament of their own.”