Nine years after winning its first state title in Cinderella fashion during its rookie season in 2013, the Becker robotics team struck again last Saturday, capturing its second MSHSL State Robotics title. This time the title pursuit was defined by several gutsy performances in less than ideal match circumstances, as the winning alliance had to overcome several obstacles, including being a robot short during a match in the semifinals. 

“Winning the title was really unbelievable, there were a lot of cool story lines that came together,” Head Coach Alex Jurek said. “We knew the elimination matches were going to be a battle and it would come down to us being able to out-cycle the other alliance’s offensive robotics.”

In the end, that is exactly what the Becker team was able to do, as the offensive shooting prowess and elite level climbing abilities of its robot, Midnight Bite, proved to be one of the keys that carried the winning alliance to the title.

This year’s robotics game competition was titled Rapid React, and it featured points scored by throwing balls into a high and low goal, as well as being able to complete the most sophisticated climb in FRC history, a three level tower topped off by an upper bar called the Transversal Climb.  Teams needed to design a robot that could climb four separate bar heights, each of which was offset from the rung beneath it.

Becker had a good overall tournament, finishing in tenth place heading into alliance selection, where four teams of three robots each would be selected and move on to compete for the championship.  With its first selection in the alliance draft, team 5172, the #3 alliance captain Gators from Greenbush-Middle River, selected Becker (C.I.S. 4607). For its final pick, the tandem picked up team 1816, The Green Machine (Edina).

Although Edina finished the preliminary rounds ranked near the bottom, Jurek knew it was a great pick, as the Edina robot was an elite defensive robot that also had great climbing abilities.

“Edina had a great defensive robot and it was a fast climber, probably the only robot that could climb faster than ours,” Jurek said. “We knew the number one alliance was very good, but we figured we had a chance to win it if we could get to the finals.”

That trick nearly proved unattainable, as Becker’s alliance won the first semifinal match 110-98 (best two out of three matches). In the second match, however, Becker’s alliance was thrown a curveball as the Gators were not able to perform.

A substitute team was on site, ready to replace the Gators, but that would mean the alliance captain would be done for the rest of the competition.

“We knew we needed them to win in the finals so a decision was made to compete with our two robots against the other alliance, which of course had three robots,” Jurek said.  “The Gators had only 15 minutes to make a 20 minute fix to their swerve drive module so we just planned to get them ready for the third semifinal match.”

Jurek said the strategy was for the two robots on the Blue alliance to work on their game and not do the final climb in that match, since “many things can go wrong when a 150 pound robot is climbing that far into the air.”

Keeping the Gators on the alliance was a decision that was supported by the Becker students as well.

“Going into semifinals match two, due to some mechanical issues only us and one other member from our alliance was on the field competing against a full three robot alliance,” Robot Operator Emilia Hansen said. “We just focused on doing our best without the expectation of winning that match.”

But to most everyone’s surprise, Edina’s defense and Becker’s prolific scoring kept the match close and then one of the red alliance robots suffered a malfunction, leaving the door open for the blue alliance to pick up the win, 74-69.

“As the match progressed, we heard our fan section begin to cheer and at that moment we knew we had a chance to win,” Hansen added. “After the final buzzer went off for that match our entire alliance went ecstatic. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and it really just got us pumped for finals.”

Jurek said that none of the coaches or long-time officials at the match ever remembers a two robots against three scenario heading into the elimination matches.

From there, Becker advanced to the finals against the top seeded alliance, comprised of team Stampede (Breck), Knight Crawlers (three time state champ from Irondale) and Rocori.

In the opening match of the finals, Becker’s trio squeaked out a 96-93 win.

The Gator robot seemed sluggish in the match and didn’t perform as well as it had earlier, but Jurek said the issue was traced to an issue with a less than fully charged battery.

“Rocori also fell off the transversal bar at the end of their climb,” Jurek said, sending the robot crashing to the floor. “Once we saw that happen, our drive team had the confidence to do well in the next match.”

Do well, indeed, as the blue alliance won the final match 136-112, posting the highest match score of the competition and bringing home the state title.

“State was a great experience,“ Robot Driver Isaac Wentland said. “We are very happy to finally get another state championship win.”

The state title was something the team had its eye on since their competition at the World Championships last month.

“My experience at state was phenomenal - I was able to have the media pass during the finals,” said media lead Kayla Meyer.  “I was right next to the field and got to be there in the moment. When the banner showed up on the screen saying Blue Alliance, I was ecstatic. The team was so determined after worlds. We really buckled down and worked hard. I know that we all wanted a win and I’m so happy we got it.”

Jurek said he was proud of how his entire team performed at the state tournament, including the drive team.  

“They drove the robot hard and in the process we did something that had never been done before at a robotics competition,” Jurek said, referring to the semifinal win. “Coming back to Becker and seeing the police escort and the welcome home at the school with over 100 people was a fitting end to a great season.”

Fast Facts from the MSHSL State Robotics Tournament

Here are some facts from the state title run.

• Matches start with a 15 second autonomous period in which the robot is programmed to do different tasks to score points.  Becker’s robot performed flawlessly during these periods, including one code which collects and launches five balls.

• Becker’s drive team is made up of Eli Bring (Human player), Isaac Wentland (Driver) and Emilia Hansen (Operator).

• Human players are able to throw balls into the goal during the autonomous period, while Becker’s team had driver Wentland in charge of driving the robot and collecting the balls from the field, while operator Hansen would trigger the shooting mechanism and perform the climb at the end.

•This was Becker’s seventh trip to the state robotics tournament in their ten years as a team - winning the title in 2013, placing second in 2014, and finishing fourth in 2016 and 2019.

• Team members include: Matty Bellefeuille, Haiden Berrios, Noah Bloch, Eli Bring, Anthony Guck, Hayden Hall, Emilia Hansen, Greg Headley, Makayla Hoefs, Helen Jiang, Jakob Johnson, Landon Jurek, Joseph Kampa, Noelle Kempin, Lizzy Kluge, Kayla Gruenes, Saul Kortmansky, Collin Lietha, Lucas Bribers, Vincent Martin, Nash Super, Kayla Meyer, Timothy Middleton, John Nielsen, Cameron Northenscold, Adam Sura, Aliyah Szabla, Michael Thielen, Preston Thielen, Zach Ward, Isaac Wentland, Trenton Woolhouse, and Abby Stich.

• Coaches: Alex Jurek, John Stich and Joe Kurhaetz.

• Mentors (professionals who lend their experience and guidance to the team during the build and competition seasons): Ryan Swanson, Logan Steffen, Corey Applegate, Jim Cota, Katy Cota, Todd Kruse, Grant Silewski, Eric McCalla, Kris Fischbach, Matt Caden, Jordan Kortmansky, Katie Meyer, Ben Fischbach, Blake Soenneker and Evan Schmidt.