Robotics Teams Rack Up Awards in State Competition, Qualify for Worlds
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss (OSSD) -- The OSUE & OSMS VEX Robotics Teams traveled to Jackson last week to compete in the Mississippi State VEX Robotics Championships and returned home with several awards in only the program’s second year in existence.
The Ocean Springs Upper Elementary (OSUE) VEX Robotics Team competed among some of the top teams in the state in earned multiple honors, including:
The OS Tech Titans (River Hartrup, Mark Blancher, Will Reidy, Bram Thomas, Avan Schmidt, & CJ Gray) earned third place overall, won the Excellence Award and second place in the Teamwork Challenge. The team also qualified for the VEX IQ World Championship in April.
The Techno Dragons (Calder Darin, Ben Beaty, Bradley Tinson, Carrig Sempier, Thomas Morgan) finished second in the state for the Design Award, which qualifies them for the VEX IQ World Championship.
The Blitz Bots (Eli Huynh, Ted Fields, Nathaniel Williams, Brody Cuevas, Cam Nguyen) finished first in the state in the Robot Skills Competition.
The Namelezz Coderz (Reenie Gray, Lidebella Devaney, Anya Kamiss, Natalie Pitalo) finished tenth place for the Think Award.
The Ocean Springs Middle School (OSMS) VEX Robotics Team also competed in the state competition and earned one of the competitions highest honors, the VEX IQ THINK Award. Earned by team 404 Not Found (Jonathan Stringfellow, Alex Carroll, Maryiam Tayra, & Luke Ryder), the prestigious award is a highly-respected honor from the judges because it highlights that the students understand their code, strategy, and engineering design process.
The students were not the only ones racking up the trophies, as Melissa Sundberg, a Teacher at OSUE and Sponsor/Coach of the OSUE & OSMS VEX Robotics programs, was presented with the Teacher of the Year Award at the state championship.
Next, the qualifying teams will travel to St. Louis to compete on the world stage in the VEX Robotics World Championships. The event will take place April 28-30, 2026, at the America's Center in St. Louis, and will feature talented robotics teams from around the globe.
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ABOUT OSSD: Ocean Springs School District is home to 6,000 dedicated students and educators. It is the mission of the Ocean Springs School District to teach our students essential content and strategies that will enable them to apply knowledge beyond their school experience and to have a positive impact on society.
ABOUT VEX ROBOTICS: VEX Robotics is a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities, and robotics teams around the world. The VEX 123, GO, AIM, IQ, EXP, V5, CTE, AIR, and VEXcode VR product lines span from elementary school all the way through college with accessible, scalable, and affordable robotics solutions. Beyond science and engineering principles, VEX Robotics encourages teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving among groups. It allows educators to easily customize projects to meet students' ability levels while inspiring and preparing the STEM, CS, and CTE problem-solvers of tomorrow.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Trey Brennan
Director of Communications
Ocean Springs School District
tbrennan@ossdms.org - (228) 234-1457
Trey Brennan
Director of Communications
Ocean Springs School District
tbrennan@ossdms.org - (228) 234-1457
- OSMS
- OSSD
- OSUE
- VEX Robotics