January 12, 2009
Bowling
Green, Ky. - A team of students from Campbell County Middle School in Alexandria was named the 
overall champion in the Kentucky FIRST LEGO League State Robotics Championship on Jan. 10 at Western Kentucky University.
“Bubble Gum” team members are Jennifer Schneider, Jamie Schneider and Jennifer Rawe. They are coached by James Klunder.
The competition attracted 41 teams with about 330 participants. The theme of this year’s event was “Climate Connections.” Teams built a robot to perform various tasks as part of the challenge and were judged on teamwork, research project and technical and design aspects.
Second place overall went to “CYBORGS” from Mount Washington Middle School. Team members are Kyle Echsner, Austin Echsner, Stephen Rhodes, Ginny Rhodes, Grant Holloway, Cody Stemie and Mike Vance; coached by David Echsner.
Other awards presented included the following:
Judge’s Award first place: “RFC—Robots For Christ” from Bowling Green Christian Academy. Team members: Alex Harnack, Hannah Higgins, Tanner Holland, and Christian Lawrence. Coach: John Higgins.
Judge’s Award second place: “LEGO Barbarians” from Greenup County 4-H. Team members: Allison Aldrich, Dylan Cox, Rachel Howard, Anna Reneau and Hunter Sexton. Coach: Jim Reneau.
Project (Research) Award first place: “Majesty m.o.n.k.s.” from Majesty Academy in Owensboro. Team members: Courtney Drake, Heather Green, Matthew Hall and Ryan Bitters. Coaches: Anna-Marie Hall and David Reeves.
Project (Research) Award second place): “Panthera Cyclones” from Potter Gray Elementary in Bowling Green. Team members: Jack Atkerson, Callie Fuller, Allie Fuller, Alexander Gelderman, Jackson Gooding, Ryan Hughes, 
Elizabeth Crews and Justin Potter. Coach: Megan Lavery.
Teamwork Award first place: “Penguin Climate Controllers” from Woodland Middle School in Taylor Mill. Team members: Justin Flynn, Ben Kistler, Kelsey Williams and Rachael Farley. Coach: Dacia McCoy.
Teamwork Award second place: “Twenhofel Technobreds” from Twenhofel Middle School in Independence. Team members: Price Burge, Dillon Naylor, Thomas Swift, Zach Fuqua, Nick Ludwig, Jacob Ludwig and Ben McKnight. Coach: Matt Emerine.
Robot Performance Award first place: “Robocats 1 Gold” from Whitefield Academy in Louisville. Team members: Christian Miller, Oakley Higgins, Zack Higdon, Paul Goodyear, Sawyer Biven, Matthew Clement, Kerry Su and Chris Vogel. Coach: Stanley Miller.
Robot Performance Award second place: “Just Chillin’” from Grant’s Lick Elementary in Alexandria. Team members: Bryan Holden, Baylee Albers, Kyle Houston, Madison Vickers, Faith Geiman, Sidney Youtsey, Noah Brueggen, Emma Owen, Michael Trout and Ty Hudson. Coach: Fred Strange.
Robot Design Award first place: “Big ‘O’ Bots,” a neighborhood team from Owensboro. Team members: Nathaniel Krampe, Johnny Clayton, Will Clayton, Elizabeth Clayton, Dominick Pugliese and Mary Strobel. Coaches: John and Michelle Clayton.
Robot Design Award second place: “CEC Cougars” from Christian Educational Consortium in Louisville. Team members: Jacob Sherman, Halle Biddix, Santo Biddix, Connor Brooks, Adam Cecil, James Gibson, Ben Maddox,
Hannah Mooney and Brandon Phan. Coach: Rebecca Cecil.
Sponsors for the competition at WKU included the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky, Applied Physics Institute and Cyber Defense Lab, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, the Provost’s Initiative of Excellence Grant and various departments in Ogden College.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact John Inman at (270) 745-3048.
Photo Captions:
(1) The FIRST LEGO League State Robotics Championship takes place on multiple tables on Saturday, Jan. 10 at Diddle Arena on the campus of WKU.
(2) Just Chillin team members from Grant's Lick Elem. in Alexandria, Ky., react to a round of competition during Saturday's state-wide competition. The team won second place in the Robot Performance Award.
Photos: Clinton Lewis
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