Submitted photo Oroville Robotic’s Team Coach Laara Peters-Kessler, winner of the Team Mentor Genius Award and Outstanding Roboteer winner Odin Finsen with teammates and fellow champions Michael Oaks, Tyler Charnholm and Trevor Miller.

CWU GEAR-UP’s Oroville High School Robotics Team competed in tournament matches on Saturday, April 24th, and returned home with a first place finish plus several other awards.

Along with Tournament Championship, the team received awards for Engineering Excellence and Hybrid Round Winner. The Outstanding Roboteer award went to Odin Finsen and Team Mentor Genius Award to Coach Laara Peters-Kessler.

The 2020-2021 game, The Haiti Plastic Waste Challenge, was inspired by the desire to make the world a better place. Teams were tasked with creating robots designed to clean up trash on a beach. Oroville’s team built two robots worthy of the awards they received.

“We have a great group of students,” said coach Peters, “and an incredible mentor in CWU’s Willem Scholten. His knowledge, dedication, warmth and ability to engage each and every student is inspiring.”

Oroville Robotics is supported as a STEM activity by Central Washington University GEAR-UP. “Special thanks to GEAR-UP Oroville Site Director Dawn Miller for her continued support,” said Peters.