GRAND FORKS, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Hi-Liner Speech team was not the only Valley City High School team that won a state championship on Saturday. The Hi-Liner Robotics team, Bob’s Little Builders won the 2021 North Dakota VEX Robotics Tournament on Saturday in Grand Forks.

Like the speech team, it was a fourth straight state championship for the robotics team. The team consists of Ezra Hanse, Derek Bear and Blake Triebold. “To win the State Championship every single year from Freshman through Senior year is an amazing feat! I am so incredibly proud of these three.” says coach Annette Beattie.

“Not only are they bright in so many facets, but they are also role models in all areas of the Valley City High School from Student Council to sport after sport while holding 4.0s. They always help the younger robotics students with programming and building. My favorite part is that they are good to the core.”

On top of that, the state runners up, the freshmen team of Jayden Johnson, Austin Jewett and Caleb Hanse.

Not to be out done by the High school team. The Junior high teams took first and second. It was a last minute dramatic win for the JH team. “They had 1 minute to stack the game three high plus get more singles in place. They got the stack… and right before the buzzer, dropped another one in to score and ended with 40 points! for the dramatic win!!” The game was 3-D tic tac toe, with a vertical stack of 3 being the mega points, but very difficult.

The two junior high teams consisted of Conner Liebersbach, Colin Hoff, and Matthew Holm. The team of Jonas Hanse, Kellan Westman, and Parker Sather got the dramatic win after the other three scored a 38. Also participating Saturday and on the heels, motivating the others to try harder were Brody Hagen, Evan Schroeder, Aaron Deaver, and Landon Storly.

Beattie says “Can’t even express how proud I am of all of these boys!!! SO. PROUD. #HI-LINER STRONG #ROLLTRAIN“