At the Jan. 28, FLL (First Lego league) sectional tournament, the FLL Minions, JP2 Rockslides and JP2 Programmers all advanced to the state tournament to be held Feb. 25 at Washington Technology Magnet School in St Paul.

 

Additionally, the Rockslides and Programmers won the Core Values award in their division and the Rockslides took first place in their head-to-head competition. 

 

The state tournament will feature 61 teams with the top three teams getting the opportunity to represent Minnesota at the World Championships in St. Louis, MO. April 26-29, or the FLL Asia Pacific Open Championship in Sydney Australia July 6-9. The top team at state gets to choose which championship to travel to while the second and third place teams get to go to the other site.

 

Sherburne County’s FTC (First Tech Challenge) team, “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back”, also competed at the Jan. 21 tournament and did great.  They displayed some great gracious professionalism as well as winning a couple of more trophies: the Stratasys 3D printing award and the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award.  

 

The “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” squad is heading the FTC state tournament Feb. 10-11 at Washington Technology Magnet School. 48 teams have qualified for the state championship and will be divided  into two divisions — the Nano Division and Galaxy Division. 

 

Teams will play within their respective divisions. There will be six qualifying rounds. Alliances will also be selected by division, and play will continue until a winner emerges in each division.

 

The winning alliance in each division will then compete against each other. The winner of this final match will become the state championship winning alliance. 

 

The JP2 Rockslides consist of Aspen, Matt, Evie, Sebastian, Ben, Joe and AJ.

 

The JP2 Programmers consist of Mary Ana, Grace Marie, Peter, Katie, Maria Jose, Julie, and Patrick. They are coached by Jenni Fuchs and Shelly Westrich.