ALLENDALE, Mich. — Crowds roared inside the Fieldhouse at Grand Valley State University for the final day of the FIRST Robotics District Competition West Michigan.
More than 40 teams from high schools across the state took part in the four-day-long event.
Teams fine-tuned their robots and demonstrated teamwork as Michigan's 500 teams competed in events to be the 160 advancing to the state championship.
"They spend all day Friday and Saturday competing like crazy for that title," said Nicki Bondzyck, the event and volunteer coordinator.
The participants, largely consisting of teams from West Michigan, formed alliances for a three-on-three tournament called "Crescendo" where two teams of three robots launched 14-inch rings to a target for points. The alliance earning the most points would win their match.
Doors opened Thursday evening for teams to inspect the playing area, receive guidelines, and practice to determine their best robots for the event.
Team matches then took place on Friday and Saturday.
"In Michigan, we are blessed with more teams than any other state or country," said Bondzyck. "We have over 500 teams in our state, so we actually have five of these events going on every weekend here in Michigan all over in this district level that take our teams and rank the top 160 teams to then move on to the Michigan State Championship."
The top half of the teams from the state championship will then represent Michigan at the World Championship.
"Michigan has more world champions than any other state and any other country. So we are proud of powerhouse Michigan teams. We attribute that to our top-notch manufacturing industry," said Bondzyck.
Hannah Klamer, a sophomore member of the Holland Christian High School robotics team, said their season begins in January, as the team will then break into groups for design, building and programming their robots.
"We start with the basics, getting our drive train, and then once building design has gotten more developed, then we start to program that and get it to work," said Klamer.
"I've learned so much from this," said Klamer. "On the surface you learn like build and programming. Like I've learned a lot of programming skills from this, but also just like the people skills I've learned, being able to talk to other teams, and also the family we get on our team is really special."
Wayland Union High School, Mattawan High School and Grandville High School became the district event winning alliance.
Holland Christian High School was awarded with the District FIRST Impact Award, the most prestigious FIRST award, honoring the team that best represents a model for other teams and best demonstrates the purpose and goals of the event.
Full results and awards can be found here.
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