MegaHertz completes Iowa Regional Robotics Competition

FAIRMONT/CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The Fairmont High School (FHS) Robotics Team, The MegaHertz, competed at the Iowa Regional Robotics Competition on March 27 and March 28, at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The competition included high school robotics teams from seven different states.

The MegaHertz won all eight of its qualification matches, improving their performance from match to match as the competition progressed and twice posting competition-high scores along with their alliance partners. The team finished ranked first and chose Rocori Robotics from Cold Spring and the Tigers from Fridley to round out their playoff alliance. Wild Wires from Earlham, Iowa, served as the alliance’s backup bot.

The MegaHertz alliance cruised through their play-off rounds until meeting the number two alliance consisting of perennial Iowa powerhouses, the Wild Cards from Polk City, Iowa, and Team Neutrino from Ames, along with BB-R8ERS from Pinecrest, Fla. A loss to this alliance placed the MegaHertz alliance in the lower bracket. The MegaHertz emerged from the lower bracket to meet the number two alliance once again in the finals. These finals pitted the current top two scoring robots in all of Minnesota (Cold Spring and Fairmont on number one alliance) against the top two scoring robots in all of Iowa (Polk City and Ames on number two alliance).

The Fairmont team claimed the first finals match after one of their alliance partners had their robot disabled by the opposing alliance. They then lost the second finals match. The third and deciding finals match divided Alliance 1 and 2 by a one-point margin (324 to 325), giving The MegaHertz alliance the runner-up title.

The MegaHertz will compete April 29-May 2 at the World Championships in Houston, TX.

The MegaHertz is led by Sam Viesselman, Aaron Perkins, Logan Kahler, Cindy Viesselman, Celia Simpson Viesselman, Bryan Kastning, Sam Cave, Kelly Perkins, Aaron Hendricks, Missy Olson and Crystal Jerred.