Green Machine wins at state

The EHS robotics team, The Green Machine, won the MSHSL State Championship May 7 in competition at the University of Minnesota. Edina was part of three-team Third Alliance that included the Gators of Greenbush-Middle River and CIS of Becker that battled their way to an amazing win.

The alliance won the first semifinal match by one point against the Second Alliance, however the Gators burned out a swerve drive motor during the match. They were not able to replace it and recalibrate in time for the second semifinal match, so the Third Alliance competed with two robots, Edina’s and Becker’s, against three. They won and advanced to the finals against the No. 1 alliance. The Third Alliance beat the top alliance in the first match by a close score, and in the second match they beat them by the highest score of the tournament.

“Kaylie Caldwell, the driver of Zap (the Edina robot) was certainly the best defensive driver in the state,” said Troy Stein, EHS athletic director.

Members of The Green Machine are:

• Adele Snyder - assistant captain and drive coach

• Alec Becker - assistant safety captain

• Andrew Guzik - build co-lead

• Evan Holly - scouting lead

• Henry Dalton - drive team technician

• Jack Zentner - safety captain

• James Kellick - scouting

• Jimmy Vu - safety glasses volunteer

• JJ Irons - field reset volunteer

• Josh Cram - scouting 

• Kaylie Caldwell - assistant captain and the best driver ever!

• Leo Wang - build/scouting

• Max Alexander - programming

• Mikael Mohammad - programming

• Neil Prajapati - build co-lead and drive team human player

• Nico Leibert - lead programmer

• Nora Banker - scouting

• Prudence Russell - robot operator

• Sam Ramirez - captain and field reset volunteer

• Urva Jha - event photographer volunteer

• Venna Wiandt - field reset volunteer

“Thank you to all the coaches, mentors and volunteers that support this program” Stein said. “A special thank you to Alyson Purdy, head coach, for her incredible creativity, collaboration, and leadership within the Robotics community.”