The week of April 2nd thru the -5th, Plymouth High School Students Josh Kuhn and Kennedy Schnieders, who comprise team 5003-the RoboNinjas, traveled to Omaha, NE to compete in the VEX Robotics U.S. Open.
There were 86 teams from around the nation competing in this tournament. The RoboNinjas were representing Indiana as they are the reigning Indiana State Champions.
VEX divided the competition into two divisions. After competing in ten qualifying matches Friday and Saturday morning, the boys had assembled a record of 5-5 and entered the Tournament Round ranked 17th. They were selected by the 3rd ranked team who hails from Texas to join their alliance. Tournament play began Saturday afternoon and the RoboNinjas easily swept through tournament play, dominating their opponents in quarterfinals, semi-finals, and divisional finals.
Winning their division advanced them to play against the other division champions for overall National Champion. The RoboNinjas dropped a close match in round one, but bounced back to win match two. This forced match three in the best-of-three series. Technical difficulty hit the RoboNinjas and they unfortunately lost match three. The RoboNinjas ended the tournament as National Runner-Ups.
The RoboNinjas will carry their ranking of 2nd in the Nation into the VEX World Championship in Anaheim, CA, April 23-26.
*The picture is Josh (4th from left) and Kennedy (5th from left) with their alliance members from Texas.
