North Kirkwood and Nipher Robotics Teams Shine at Regional VEX Tournament

On Saturday, January 17, North Kirkwood Middle School hosted the “Push Back at NKMS” V5RC Middle School Tournament, welcoming 31 teams. Students from both Nipher Middle School and North Kirkwood Middle School competed, with the Nipher Knights showing strong determination throughout the day. Two Nipher teams advanced to the quarterfinals, several earned top marks in the Skills competitions, and all teams gained valuable insights to improve their robots as they look ahead to future tournaments.

North Kirkwood teams earned four total awards:

• Team 99766F - Thunder Gear (Andrew Filla, Kiran Brosch, Mason Bardot, Max Schanz) teamed up with Team 99766B  (Henry Plank, Martin Igney, Barrett Nance) to win the Tournament Championship!
   
• Team 99766F also earned the Excellence Award, which recognizes the top overall team. Only teams that place at the top in every category can win this prestigious award.
   
• Team 99766B additionally placed first in the Robot Skills challenge with a high score of 113 points, placing them in the top 100 teams in the world!

Nipher teams that made the quaterfinals include: 

• Team 34314B - The McDonald's Delivery Drivers (Tarak Suresh, Levi Dietrich, Blake Thurman and BJ Mitchell) 
• Team 34314A - The Goobers (Liam Hogan and Noel Bricker). 

Nipher teams that placed within the top 10 in skills were Teams 3431G - The Bot Brawlerz (Oliver Clemens, Gavin Vessa, Will Joseph, and Oliver Schroeder) and Team 34314E - The Tech Titans (Hudson Chiles, Thomas Wynn, Miles Capes, Bryce Moulder, and Everett Worrell).

VEX Robotics Competitions, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, provide elementary and middle school students with engaging, open-ended robotics and research challenges. These competitions build science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills through hands-on, student-centered learning.

For more information, please visit: https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/RE-V5RC-25-0556.html#awards