Glacier High robotics team earns awards

A Glacier High School robotics team earned accolades and the top three spots in different competitive events at a recent Montana Technology Student Association State Leadership Conference in Billings.

In the robotics portion of the competition, the Glacier team comprising Carter Pollan, Nate Pilsch, Dawson Wheeler, Nic Hannay and Will McGeary took second place in addition to a sportsmanship trophy, an award that was voted on by participating teams. The team made up of Sean Dardis, Parker Shumard, Drew Dickey and Wyatt Weller were given a design award.

Being recognized for sportsmanship meant a lot according to Glacier High School’s Technology Student Association club advisor Troy Smith.

“Teams help each other out in this competition. You would think we wouldn’t do that because it’s a competition, but we want to teach each other. You get this award because you help each other learn,” Smith said, highlighting the team’s efforts in assisting competitors from smaller schools. “We are one of the few schools that excel in computer programming and so we help a lot of the smaller schools perfect their programming for each robot.”

It’s the ideas and successful outcomes that drive and excite engineering and robotics competitors — not just awards.

“The team that loses is excited for the team that won. You see teams high-fiving each other at the end,” Smith said. “It is cool to see the robots perform so well. It’s ideas,” Smith said, adding that ideas can be imitated and perfected.

Other results are as follows:

CO2 Dragsters — 2. Alex Wright.

Desktop Publishing — 2. Alex Wright and Tyler Judd.

Digital Photography — 1. Tyler Judd, 2. Alex Wright.

Flight Endurance — 2. Ryan Williams and Ethan Sapp.

Late Break Racer — 2. Ryan Williams, 3. Lauren Vornbrock.

Program Promotion Display — 1. Tyler Judd, Dalton Marcum, Will McGeary, AJ Weller and Alex Wright.

Surfing the Internet — 3. Robert Hurly and Will McGeary.