28 teams battle for 2024 VEX Robotics State Championship

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Last year, a team of Harrisburg High School seniors represented South Dakota in the World Robotics Championships and took home first place.

On Saturday, over 20 teams battled for VEX Robotics State Championship. The interest in robotics is growing around the state and the tougher competition will only help students grow in their skills.

“It’s been crazy. We’ve been doing this for eight years now and I remember at our first competition, there were eight teams there,” said Sam Newitt with the “Robo Chickens” team.

“The state robotics as well as Mitchell robotics has grown a lot in my time being here and that’s really exciting to see the program grow and be sustainable,” said Gabe with the “Vexinators” team.

Young minds and bright futures are pushing robotics forward in South Dakota. From humble beginnings in the first competitions to a world champion last year, youth are being inspired to get involved.

“For me, it’s very important to see this growth because we need a place for these kids, these future engineers, these future programmers to practice these skills and learn about what they can do early on,” said Event Engagement Manager with REC Foundation Chris Stewart.

Stewart was a former teacher at Harrisburg South Middle School and helped kickstart robotics there. Now, he works for the tournament organizer. Seeing the students flourish is his favorite part of the state championship.

“Today is the testament of how much work they’ve put in, how many hours they’ve put in and what they’ve managed to accomplish,” Stewart said.

While robotics is not a school-sponsored activity, students each have a unique path to getting interested and getting started.

“The way that I got involved initially was my dad was involved back when I was in elementary school and he took me along to a couple competitions and I just know I fell in love with it. Thomas and I kind of knew each other already and we just kind of decided to start from there,” Newitt explained.

“What interests me is I’m really into the building aspect. I like problem-solving and the creating aspect of just building something with your hands from scratch,” Gabe said.

Word of mouth is huge for growing the activity in South Dakota and it helps to have recognition from last year’s world champion team from Harrisburg.

“To see them go from a small town community and we compete against them and everything and then to see that kind of level at worlds was really awesome to see,” Gabe said.

Saturday’s winners included Robotics from Sioux Falls and Flapjack from Harrisburg.

The Vexinators from Mitchell took home the excellence award.

The new champions will make their way to Dallas for the world championships in April.

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