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The North Branch-Chisago Lakes ICE Robotics team finished on the Championship Alliance at the 10,000 Lakes Regional held at Williams Arena. The win qualifies the squad for the National Championships in Atlanta, GA on April 15, 16, and 17.

Seven teams from Minnesota have qualified. Regionals were held at the U of M last week. After nine seeding matches over two days, local Team 3038 was selected by the number one ranked team to join their alliance in the championship round. Eight alliances of three teams each play a two out of three match format, to determine the winner.

The North Branch-Chisago Lakes Alliance won their quarter final match 2-0 and advanced to the semi-finals where they prevailed 2-1. In the finals, Team 3038 ICE robot fell victim to a broken drive chain in game one. (See picture of repair) The alliance held on to win, took a six-minute timeout where the mechanical team of Sam Todd (Chisago Lakes), Andy Lawrence (North Branch Area), with the help of the drive team were able to fix the robot in time for game two. The Alliance won the second game and were declared champions of the 10,000 Lakes Regional after a 2-0 victory.

The drive team for Team 3038 is Carl Fisk (NB), Evan Freeman (CL), Lucas Stein (CL), Araya Gamble (CL) and Tomy Cummings (NB). Andrew Lebens (NB) and Liz Ries (NB) headed up the scouting team. Other team members are Stephanie Babou (NB), Tyana Coleman (NB), Brian Erickson (CL), Kyle Hultquist (CL), Grant Hyslop (NB), Josh Linman (CL), Marjorie Otto (NB), Alex Peka (NB), and Kevin Stein (NB).

"This was truly a team effort. The kids are very excited and have made quite an impression after only two years of involvement in the program. We have a great group of volunteer mentors that answer questions and give guidance but the students make all the decisions and do all the work on the robot," commented mentor Becky Leuer. Scott Frischmon, lead mentor from Chisago Lakes, added "The goal was to get in the playoffs because once you get there, anything can happen and it did."

Other mentors are Ken Cummings (NB), Jon Gamble (CL), Matt Plante (NB), Anne Lawrence (NB) and Dave Nelson (Forest Lake). All of the mentors are volunteer.

The entry fee and start-up build costs for the team are paid for by St. Jude Medical, the primary sponsor of the team.

Next up for Team 3038, the National Championships. This will feature 340 teams competing at the Georgia Dome. Teams from around the world will attend this event. Team 3038 is now preparing for the event and seeking donations from anyone interested in supporting the team to offset costs of the trip to Atlanta. Team 3038, representing Chisago Lakes High School and North Branch Area High School, doesn't get taxpayer funding. Donations can be directed to Scott Frischmon at Chisago Lakes or Becky Leuer at North Branch.

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