Newton High School’s “Newbotics” team was not one of four teams to emerge from a Jan. 10 qualifier for a state-championship competition.
Advisor and NHS science teacher Eric Grabe said the Newbotics team won three out of seven robotics matches in the “Apple-Kiwi” league qualifier in Corning, which was part of a system used to qualify teams for Iowa’s For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Tech Challenge state championships.
That event is set for the weekend of March 6-7 in Coralville. Top finishers there can advance to the March 26-28 North Super Regionals in Des Moines, and, potentially, the world competition, set for April 22-25 in St. Louis.
After qualifying for state in 2012-13, Newbotics narrowly missed a trip to state in 2013-14.
“Sorry to say we will not be headed to state this year,” Grabe said. “We had one of our best days in terms of execution as a team/robot, but our competition proved to be quite steep.”
The qualifiers match teams from two leagues together, with each league fielding about 10 to 12 teams. There are 199 registered FIRST teams in Iowa, in more than 40 counties.
Grabe said it speaks to the strength of the Apple League that three of the four qualifiers from the Corning compeition were from that Apple side, as opposed to the Kiwi League.
“Teams from Pella, Knoxville and Oskaloosa did qualify,” Grabe said.