From left are robot skills winners Nathan Smith, Noah Beckner, Wesley Hays and Connor Byrd. Photo provided.

News Release

GREENFIELD — Saturday, Jan. 9, after a long break, the Iron Pride of Wawasee High School got back into action at Greenfield-Central High School.

574D threw down a skills score of 232. Their 126 driver score is a perfect score and driver Nathan Smith did it with seven seconds to spare. Their score of 106 in programming combined with their driving score puts them at second in the state of Indiana, 11th in the United States, and 19th in the world.

Three of the four Wawasee teams competing advanced into the elimination bracket. Sixth ranked 574A (4-2-0) had an amazing day and was chosen for the fourth seed, while 11th ranked 574C (4-2-0), who had various technical issues throughout the day, but was quickly selected by the third seed, and fourth ranked 574D (5-1-0) landed in the second seed.

574A was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Head coach Jed Wandland said, “This was A’s best effort of the season. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment when you have teams that are ready to take on the world like our C and D teams, but our freshmen on A have really improved. I’m truly impressed by their progress.”

574C and 574D faced off in the semifinals. Midway through the match the processor or “brain” of 574D’s robot had a severe malfunction called a whitescreen and their robot stopped moving. 574C and their partner 1115D smelled blood in the water and cleaned up the field for the win. Nathan Smith, 574D driver said, “Whitescreening is an anomaly, not even the manufacturer of the equipment can say what causes it.”

574C and 1115D moved on to the finals round as the underdog against 6842Z, Pigpen from Park Tudor, and their partner 1115B, Ramrod from Greenfield Central. The match began with PigPen and Ramrod winning the autonomous portion, giving them an extra six points and a superior scoring position on the field.

574C stepped up with some of the best driving this season, countering Pigpen and Ramrod move for move. After the buzzer rang on the two minute nail-biter the score was unclear until the referees revealed the score of 14-13 for a Wawasee victory.

All teams follow COVID-19 precautions and social distancing. Only coaches, team members and essential volunteers are allowed. Spectators can watch all the matches on YouTube, search Wawasee Iron Pride.

Team results:

574C — Tournament champion, 11th place qualifier, state qualifier

574D — Robot skills champion, 19th worlds skills, second state skills, fourth place qualifier

574A — Fifth place qualifier, round of 16

574E — 18th place qualifier, 12th robot skills, semifinals

Wawasee’s roster:

574A — Theo Frick, Josh Lesko

574B — Vanessa Wright

574C — Evan Rassi, Taylor Fiedeke, Evan Brower

574D — Noah Beckner, Wesley Hays, Nathan Smith, Connor Byrd

574E — Charlie Krull, Sydni Ewing, Alan Warren, Harry Doss

The next tournament is Saturday, Jan. 16, at Jay County High School. This will be a remote skills only event. A live stream may be available.

Follow facebook.com/wawaseerobotics for more details.