by Dennis Dalman
The Sartell robotics team worked hard and had a great time the end of April at the robotics world championship tournament in Houston, Texas, but unfortunately the team didn’t win.
The team (“Team 6045”) had a great beginning on the first day, but a pesky mechanical glitch suddenly happened in their robot, causing the team to fall behind.
There are 20 student members from Sartell who went to the tournament, and they competed with scores of teams from throughout the entire world.
In early March, the team won the “Lake Superior Regional” title against dozens of other teams, thus qualifying for the world championship tournament in Houston. As of March 11, the Sartell students had the second most wins of any robotic teams in the world.
The team’s coach is Ryan Swenson, who had this to say of the students:
“Dedication made the team successful,” he said. “It’s the best group of kids I could have imagined working with. They made my job as easy as it could be. I just pointed them in a direction and watched them grow.”