More than 80 elementary students from across Martin County, Minn., teamed up for an energetic robotics competition at Fairmont Elementary School in Fairmont the morning of Saturday, April 12th.
This Martin County KnowHow! VEX IQ Robotics Competition saw 3rd & 4th graders from the Truman, Fairmont, Martin County West, and Granada-Huntley-East Chain school districts — 82 students across 30 teams — working together to face a friendly collaborative challenge. These students spent several weeks building and learning how to operate their VEX IQ robots, and were excited to put their hard work to the test.
The competition required students to navigate their robots around the game field, working collaboratively to score points by clearing balls from a corral, scoring balls in a goal, and parking their robots. These robots are created from a kit of pre-approved parts. Students followed a set of instructions to build a base robot and then were free to create their own designs to better play the game.
The podium finishers after 2 hours of competition were:
Little Einsteins + LeBot James
Jimmy John + IDK
Two Kool + Team Snackers
Photo highlights
The teams
The 30 teams at the event were:
28IQ (MCW) Titus Krusemark & Bronx Geiger
AMAzing (MCW) Amelia Olson, Adalie Grupe & Mejta Rohman
Bob the Bot (FMT) Sarah Gries, John Gries & Sloane Meier
Call of Duty Controller (FMT) Tatum Byers, Cooper Allen & Bradley Ramirez Lemus
Da Boyzz (GHEC) Brayden Maday, Noah Saunders & Carter Briseno
D.E. Turtle Bots (MCW) Elayna Hansen & Dominic Sundberg
Dirt Bikes (MCW) Owen Petersen, Zeke Krusemark & Shay Arnold
IDK (FMT) Luther Steinkamp, Asher Owens & Mack Ufer
Jimmy John (FMT) Thayne Geiger, Michael Anderson & Daxton Haberman
Juice World (GHEC) Brian Embaucher & Easton Rettke
LeBot James (FMT) Carter McCourt & Kamdyn Hatfield
Leysa (GHEC) Ruby Thompson & Autumn Laschinski
Little Einsteins (FMT) Camden Harris, Pierce Brackey & Isaac Hanson
Not Sure (FMT) Olivia Zellmer, Emma Fretty & Glenda Sauer
Robobusters (FMT) Caleb Dietz, Gunnar Sukalski & Moxon Parrott
Team Snackers (FMT) April Coan, Shylo Larsen & Izabella Landwehr
The Destroyers (MCW) Collin Schultz, Caleb Wink & Callen Hartwig
The Eagles (MCW) Rab Hobbs, Merrick Engstrom & Cleo Brolsma
The Football Boys (GHEC) Chase Bellecourt, Kael Reynolds & Bentley Roorda
The Lions (TRU) Renata Ramirez & Ava Villalon
The Rizzlers (MCW) Andrew Firchau, Dylan Firchau & Jayse Schultz
The Rushers (MCW) KayLynn Hilgendorf, Sully Arnold & Holden Schmidtke
The Shrekers (FMT) Carter Rowan, Hezekiah Kahler & Caysen McCoy
The Tigers (TRU) Danilo Ramirez & Grayson Werner
The Wild Robot (TRU) Ricklin Simning & Callan Bosshart
Tie-Dye Girls (TRU) Della Garlick, Matilda Root, Ahlana Parsons & Audrey Ulrich
Turbo Tech (MCW) Max Dorschner, Nolan Kamlitz & Ramsey White
Turtles Got to Be Fast (GHEC) Otto Anderson, Rosalynn Mattson & Adelyn Wolters
Two Kool (TRU) Liam Schofield & Kael Krahmer
Unstoppable Flaming Dragons (MCW) Silas Fuller, Abel Diel & Sage Gwin
Our thanks
Thank you to all of the students who participated, their fans who came to cheer them on, the Fairmont school district for hosting us, the Fairmont Opera House for use of some A/V equipment, and all of our adult & youth volunteers who helped put on this event, including members of the Fairmont High School and MCW High School robotics teams! You’re all important parts of this fun application of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in our community.
Special thanks to our founding supporters Project 1590, Martin County Area Foundation and Kahler Automation, and additional supporters Martin County Youth Foundation and Bank Midwest.
And thank you to the Fairmont Sentinel for covering our event! https://www.fairmontsentinel.com/news/local-news/2025/04/15/youth-robotics-program-draws-in-area-students/