Sundown Middle School students competed at the TCEA Robotics competition held at Abell Middle School in Midland last week.
“Students arrived at 6 a.m. in order to travel, and arrived back home around 8:30 p.m. It was an action packed day to say the least!,” said Middle School Principal Miguel Salazar.
“Our 7th grade students Blevin Petrick, Avy McGlasson, Maddy Medrano, and JC Jenkins were the Champion Inventors in the Intermediate Class with their Assistant Vital Checker (AVC) invention.”
“The afternoon was jam packed with robotics competition, and our students competed with integrity and class,” continued Salazar. “Camden Bufe and Isaiah Igo started off strong, and were the 3rd place team going into the finals. They partnered with a team from another school and came up short in the first round of the finals on account of something out of their control (heartbreaking for our kids as they worked so hard). Eli Keen and Zane Perez chose to partner with Ryder Bufe and Brock Bufe (Brock was a substitute for Braxie Albus), and their team came back from the 7th place team in the pre-lims to finish 2nd place overall in the Intermediate Robotics Competition! Our students were complimented by the directors and judges in charge, and as the day progressed, the judges openly began to root for our students from Sundown! Mrs. Ashley Bufe was the local expert in all things robotics, and was looked to for help in answering all the questions that continued to arise throughout the day! After receiving our medals, and loading up the van, we found our way over to Marble Slab Creamery for some celebratory ice cream! The ice cream was great, but it may have added some extra weight on our students as we encountered a minor hiccup on our drive home... a blowout! The added weight seemed to be too much for our van to handle!”
“Students oddly enjoyed the experience of having a blowout... in the middle of nowhere... making a long day longer.... in pitch black darkness!” he continued. “We were lucky to have Greg Harms, from Seminole, stop and lend a helping hand with an impact wrench and an extra car jack! He was very kind to drive by and check on us, and even agreed to have his picture taken with our students. He congratulated our students on a job well done for the day, and went on about his way once he knew we were safe and back on the road. It is great to share the news of good people out in this world, and we are thankful to have crossed paths with Mr. Harms! If you know him, please let him know that we appreciate him!”
“As we arrived home, students even managed to keep some hardware from out trip.... in addition to the medals and trophies they received... the hardware they seemed most excited about was the piece of rubber they cut from the blown tire that they took home as a keepsake! Gotta love Middle School Kids!” he concluded.