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Cosmic Snowballs ready to roll back to state championship

Cosmic Snowballs ready to roll back to state championship
Robotics teams from Charles City Middle School and IC School came together on Saturday, Jan. 11, to support each other at the FIRST LEGO League qualifier in Waterloo. Submitted photos.
By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Cosmic Snowballs are going back to state.

The Charles City Middle School’s Lego robot program went to Waterloo on Saturday, Jan. 11, to participate in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge Qualifier.

Debuting last year with a wildly successful rookie season that ended with a second place finish at the state championship and a trip to Florida for an invitational contest, the Snowballs are back this year and poised for another shot at the state title with eyes on the national title.

They cleared the first hurdle this weekend in Waterloo, taking first place overall for the second year in a row at the regional qualifying contest.

“The Snowballs smashed it,” said TAG instructor Patrick Nyberg.

Designing, building, and programming a robot to perform a series of pre-defined tasks on a mission course, the team got off to a strenuous start as their robot misfired during the first two of their three runs of the day.

After some on-the-fly troubleshooting and adjustments, the Snowballs came back at the end, hitting the day’s highest score for the robotics portion of the contest with 310 points.

“There’s only a handful of teams across the state that have crossed the 300 point threshold in competition,” said Nyberg.

This, along with high marks in their presentation, design, and sportsmanship, earned the Cosmic Snowballs entry to the state championship in Ames on Feb. 1.

The state championship isn’t the only event that the Cosmic Snowballs have to look forward to next month, either. The team has also been invited to the Lynx Robo Rumble in Webster City, where they will compete against more than 30 teams in a contest of pure robotics.

Building off of last year’s roster, this year’s team of Cosmic Snowballs features five returning members from the program along with three new members.

“It’s a nice balance of experience and fresh perspectives,” said Nyberg.

After a successful launch last year, the middle school robotics program continues to grow. Nyberg said he has enjoyed watching the organic mentorship develop between the new fifth grade members and the experienced eighth graders as they share workspace and ideas.

“That’s probably one of the coolest things for me to see,” said Nyberg. “Everyone is there to support each other.”

Along with the Snowballs, the seventh grade team, Disbrickable Me, also had a strong showing after a troubled start.

“Early in the morning they found themselves in crisis mode,” said Nyberg.

After realizing that they had accidentally overwritten some of their code, Disbrickable Me faced a domino effect of challenges that hobbled their first two runs of the day.

After working through their issues and getting in some mid-day trial runs, Disbrickable Me came back in their third attempt with a high score of 210, getting them a sixth place finish in the robotics contest.

“I was tremendously proud of how they rallied from that,” said Nyberg. “For them to show that resilience and perseverance was really pretty cool to see as a coach.”

The public school wasn’t the only Charles City school competing in Waterloo. Immaculate Conception Elementary had three teams at the qualifier as well.

Coached by Jeanne Hansen, the IC Smarties also earned a trip to the state contest while the Wildcat Big Brains and IC Lego Maniacs each performed well. The Big Brains earned a score of 205 in the robotics contest, placing them in the top 10 of the qualifier.

“IC did great,” said Nyberg. “It was super fun to be there at the event with the IC teams.”

Whether private or public, parents and students from Charles City came together to support each other in Waterloo and will be doing so again in Ames in just a couple weeks.

The Cosmic Snowballs and the IC Smarties aren’t the only Charles City teams going to the state championship either. Earlier in December the middle school’s 5th/6th grade team, The Brianiacs, earned a trip to the state at the Cedar Falls Regional Qualifier, where they placed fourth overall and won the Robot Design Award.

“We will have, from Charles City, three teams again at state,” said Nyberg. “It’s pretty cool that we’ll have that representation.”

Cosmic Snowballs ready to roll back to state championship
The Charles City Cosmic Snowballs took first place overall at the FIRST LEGO League qualifier in Waterloo on Saturday.
Cosmic Snowballs ready to roll back to state championship
The Charles City Brainiacs earned a trip to the state championship last December at the Cedar Falls Regional Qualifier where they won the Robot Design Award and placed 4th overall. Pictured are Laker Kubik, Audrey Jones, Sam Soifer, Emersyn Miller, and Isaac Decker.
Cosmic Snowballs ready to roll back to state championship
Disbrickable Me, the Charles City Seventh Grade robotics team, saw a strong comeback at the Waterloo qualifier on Saturday. Pictured are Elijah Soifer, Hayden Bartz, Ana Limones, Saeli Chase, Laarni Lara, Evelyn Williams, and Coach Patrick Nyberg.
Cosmic Snowballs ready to roll back to state championship
The Charles City Cosmic Snowballs are going back to the FIRST LEGO League State Championship. Pictured are (back) Graham Hansen, Isaac Gassman, Flynn Osider, (front) Dixie Wilson, Sierra Hinz, Benny Tracey, Elliott Linde, Carter Mack, and Coach Patrick Nyberg.

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