Cranbrook VEX Teams Jumpstart the Year

The Vex Robotics Competition (VRC) teams of Cranbrook Schools got started early this summer with success at the opening Michigan Vex tournament of the 2016-17 VRC year. On Saturday, August 6th, two of our teams met at Cranbrook before sunrise and travelled to the Monroe County Fair Vex Qualifying Tournament, ending the day with three trophies and one team qualifying for the Michigan State Championship to be held in February.

Cranbrook’s two teams, 38A led by 8th grader Aishwarya Kannan and 35A led by 10th grader Steven Wang, conducted a “Blitz Week,” in which they built entirely new robots over the course of five consecutive days leading up to the Saturday tournament in Monroe. Steven and Aishwarya both accepted noble challenges: Steven recruited, organized, and trained a group of freshmen boys for his team, and Aishwarya took on the Blitz Week as her first building experience for the VRC.

In Monroe, our Cranbrook teams were among the top performers throughout the day, both earning the chance to choose their own team alliance for the elimination bracket of the tournament. The elimination matches were close and exciting, ending with Aishwarya’s team 38A and their alliance partner, team 1396A of Temperance, MI, winning the final round, earning both teams the title and trophy of Tournament Champions. 38A additionally won the Sportsmanship Award, for their exemplary conduct and professional interactions with the other teams at the tournament. Steven Wang’s team 35A took home the Excellence Award, the highest honor granted at Vex tournaments, given for their competitive performance, their superb digital notebook detailing the team’s engineering process, and the team’s good rapport and attitude of perseverance. The Excellence Award qualifies team 35A for competition in the State Championship of Michigan, making them the first Michigan team of this year to qualify.

Congratulations to our Cranbrook VRC teams 35A and 38A for their hard work and success as we begin the 2016-17 school year. Keep it going!