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By Ayanna Eckblad

The Albert Lea High School on Saturday hosted the city’s first home robotics competition. A total of 36 teams competed, coming from across Minnesota — as far away as East Grand Forks — as well as Iowa and Nebraska. Six of the teams were from Albert Lea: four from Southwest Middle School and two from Albert Lea High School. This included high school robotics team The Broken Zip Ties, who recently competed in a multi-day tournament in Green Bay, Wisconsin, against 71 teams from across the U.S. and Canada.

From the 36 teams, there were about 200 students who competed in total.

There were 12 awards given at the tournament. Kaylene Jensen, Albert Lea High School robotics coach and event partner/event host, said winners will compete in the state robotics competition in St. Cloud in two weeks.

Most of the competition consisted of two-minute matches in which teams competed to win points. There were both independent competitions and matches with three teams competing against each other. Additionally, there were parts of the competition in which robots worked autonomously based on programming students gave them ahead of time.

In deciding winners, a team of judges consisting of engineers and community volunteers followed a rubric to determine what team would come out on top.

Jensen said she was excited the Albert Lea robotics program has reached a point where they can host home competitions.

“This is our first time ever running our own home tournament,” she said. “It’s a really good feeling. It’s kind of one of those signs that we’ve gotten to a certain level within our program that we’re able to have a strong program to be able to bring and invite people in to come compete with us here.”

Jensen also said she is excited the community will be able to support the teams without needing to travel to another city to do so.

Albert Lea High School senior Brecken Koepke has been involved with the robotics program since it began in 2018. He said he enjoys the competition and camaraderie with his teammates and is excited for the matches.

“It’s just a really good group of people and really fun time to just be around here and have these experiences,” Koepke said.