Consumers Energy T-shirts spin through the air inside Kettering University’s Connie and Jim John Recreation Center as a sea of student engineers leapt to catch them.
Minutes later, many of those same students were back at their workstations, laptops open and tools in hand, making last-minute adjustments to robots they had spent months designing.
At Kettering, scenes like this are familiar: young engineers testing ideas, refining designs, and pushing their robots further with every match.
Over two days, teams from across the state gathered at Kettering University in Flint for the Consumers Energy Michigan VEX V5 High School State Championship, one of Michigan’s highest levels of student robotics competition.
Robots navigated scoring zones while alliances formed and dissolved between matches. Between rounds, students huddled over laptops and toolboxes, rewriting code, tightening bolts, and swapping parts in rapid attempts to improve performance before the next match began. Six competition fields ran simultaneously across two divisions. Additional practice and robot skills fields gave teams opportunities to test strategies, refine programming, and make last-minute mechanical adjustments.
When the matches concluded, multiple teams earned recognition for their engineering achievements and competitive performance:
The Excellence Award, the event’s highest honor, went to Team 39Y – Yolt from Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, who also captured a Tournament Championship and the Robot Skills Champion title.
The second Tournament Champion was Team 7760X – Airplane Mode from Seed Seek Robotics, also based in Bloomfield Hills.
Tournament Finalists included Team 39Z – Bobby Wasabi and Team 39H – HNS, both representing Cranbrook Schools.
Tournament Semifinalists were:
Team 36620H – jim, Unity Christian High School, Hudsonville
Team 2140A – Quiet Riot, Jenison High School, Jenison
Team 40684D – Griffilicious, Napoleon High School, Napoleon
Team 288A – RoboDawgs: Counter-Strike, Grandville High School, Grandville
Additional awards recognized excellence in engineering design, documentation, and team performance.
Design Award – Team 11591S – John Deere, Plainwell High School
Innovate Award – Team 74485B – Perpetual, Benzie Central Senior High School
Think Award – Team 2140A – Quiet Riot, Jenison High School
Amaze Award – Team 39H – HNS, Cranbrook Schools
Build Award – Team 36620B – Blue Crew, Unity Christian High School
Create Award – Team 63600C – Eaglebots: Blackjack, Grand Rapids Christian High School
Several of these honors — including Excellence, Tournament Champion, Tournament Finalist, Design, Innovate, Think, Amaze, Build, Create, and Robot Skills Champion — qualify teams for the VEX Robotics World Championship, where they will compete alongside the best robotics teams from around the globe.
The weekend of robotics activity continued the following day with a FIRST Robotics “Week 0” scrimmage at the Kettering Robotics Center, where teams tested their machines before the official competition season began.
For Kettering University, hosting the state championship is part of a broader effort to support the next generation of engineers. Throughout the year, robotics teams visit campus for competitions, camps, and outreach programs that connect students with faculty, alumni, and industry partners.
Event sponsors included Consumers Energy (title sponsor), Financial Plus Credit Union (field build sponsor), and Hampton Inn Flint/Grand Blanc and Hyatt Place Flint/Grand Blanc (hotel sponsors).
