Nevis robotics season ends with 4th place finish in Iowa

The Nevis Tech-No-Tigers ended their season this past weekend in an alliance that finished fourth at the regional competition in Iowa.

There were 56 teams from seven states at the regional event.

The competition was an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. Play began Friday and continued into Saturday when alliances were formed. Nevis was in an alliance with teams from two other Minnesota schools.

“In the first round, our alliance got beat by one point,” mentor Olaf Netteberg said. “It was a high-scoring match with a final score of 141-140 points. That put us in a lower bracket where you have to win your way back in. We won our second match, then lost our third match by one point. That eliminated us.”

Netteberg said the alliance they lost their first match to went on to place first and are going to compete in the robotics world championship.

One senior on the Nevis team is graduating this year. Evan Pohl plans to do an apprentice program to become an electrical lineman.

“This was his first year with robotics,” Netteberg said. “He earned a co-driver position and did a fabulous job.”

Netteberg said he is looking forward to many of the team members who have participated at regionals in Arkansas in Iowa returning next season.

“Our students gained experience from interacting and competing with students from throughout the nation,” he said. “The life lessons learned and networking friendships gained are huge. Our roster is thin on juniors and freshmen, but on sophomores it’s huge. Robotics is a varsity activity and we are excited that we will have 18 returning letter winners.”

Robotics team members will officially begin meeting in the fall but team members will be active this summer, too.

“We’ll have summer outreach and programming camps,” Netteberg said. “We’ll also be at Muskie Days and participate at a big STEM expo at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds in Fargo. That’s a fun, one-day competition using last year’s robot and game.”

Students who are in eighth grade will be able to sign up for robotics in the fall. “We start meeting the second week of school at least one day a week,” he said. “We will have different people in leadership roles and will be looking to fill positions. We also begin our outreach and training.” The 30-team conference championship will be held in October using the previous robot and game.

“We won that event last year,” Netteberg said.