Fourteen West Delaware students and one robot made the trek to Cedar Falls, March 22 through the 24th, to compete in the Iowa Regional FIRST Competition.  

The team placed 53th out of the 61 competing teams from all over the Midwest. Teams not only came from the Midwest, but from Brazil and Turkey as well.

Drive team member Annika Sutter (11) said, “We didn’t do that well, but we completed what we had set out to do.”

During competition, the team was paired with another team to complete the tasks given to them in the specific round.

Junior Tyler Salow’s job was to communicate with the team they were paired with to establish strategies and make quick changes during the competition. “There was one point where I actually had one of the opposing teams come over to me and say that we were a good team,” Salow said.

Advisor Seth Harms said, “This year we were paired with teams that didn’t contribute well or (whose robots) broke.” This made competing difficult for the team.

The Iowa Regional FIRST Competition was the conclusion of the Iron Hawks’ 2017-2018 season. Salow said, “It will be a lot of starting over (next year).” Due to funding, the Regional Competition is the only competition the team is able to compete in. “We’ve already been looking into sponsorships for next season,” Salow said.