McMinnville
School District’s middle school robotics program sent four teams to the
FIRST Tech Challenge qualifying tournament at Oregon State University
last weekend.  The teams competed against 20 other teams from around
Oregon and Idaho, including high school teams, and received multiple
awards, including the tournament’s top award. 
Three of the teams advanced to the Super Qualifying tournament, which will be held February 13 in Hillsboro.
Patton’s
Team Tehwurlisis and Duniway’s Team Aftershock formed an alliance that
also included Lincoln High School.  That alliance won trophies for the
first
place in the entire tournament.  Aftershock also won the “Inspire
Award” for gracious professionalism, engineering design, business and
strategic planning, creative design, and innovation.  The Inspire Award
grants the team the first slot into the next rounds. 
Lord
of the Gears came in 6th place in the qualifying rounds and was the
recipient of the “Think Award” for their ability to remove engineering
obstacles
through creative thinking as documented in their engineering notebook. 
The team also qualified for the next round of the tournament. 
Teams and team members include: 
Aftershock
(Duniway): Kayden Bartley, Chloe Capener, Michael Crain, James Eitzen,
Garrett Gibson, Tyler Hinthorn, Jose Flores, Ryan Martinez, and Faith
Miller
Tehwurlisis (Patton) Jordan Brantner, Brendan Brewer, Nick Payton, Ben Sparrow and Connor Whitmore
Lord
of the Gears (Duniway):  Laura Denny, Ailie Johnson, Carly Thorkildson,
Kaylani Kam, Josiah Yuen, Keegan Brenna, Brendan McKeegan , Ryan Joel 
and Caden
Hawkens
The Time Lords (Patton):  Bryan Blank, Tyler Gallinger, Mark Hart, Alyson Hart, Byron Nice and Joseph Preston
The
teams have been working since September on their robots, as an
after-school activity.  McMinnville School District’s FIRST Tech
Challenge program is funded
by state and federal grants.