Rutherford county students recently participated in the 2019 Music City BEST Robotics Competition where Rutherford County students made up nearly half of the competition.

Lipscomb University hosted the competition of 14 teams, of which six were from competing from Rutherford County.

The teams competed in a variety of categories such as BEST Exhibit Design and Construction, BEST Engineering Design and BEST Rookie team.

The six schools that participated were Blackman Middle, Christiana Middle, Rockvale Middle, Rocky Fork Middle, Stewarts Creek Middle and Thurman Francis Arts Academy.

Of the six teams competing many of them took home multiple awards including the highest honor for 1st place BEST Award for invitation to the regional tournament at Auburn University this award went to Stewarts Creek Middle.   

Stewarts Creek Middle School team will travel to Auburn University for the South BEST Regional Competition in  Auburn, Alabama.

A complete list of schools and their awards:

• Blackman Middle School— Blackman Robotics: Flamebots (Zac Martin)
  • Most Improved Team
  • BEST Exhibit Design and Construction
  • Most Photogenic Machine
  • 4th place Robot Competition
• Christiana Middle School— Christiana Robotics (Dawn Powell) (First Appearance)
  • 11th place Robot Competition
• Rockvale Middle School—(Leandra Greene and Perry Louden) (First Appearance)
  • BEST T-Shirt Design
• Rocky Fork Middle School —(Bobbie Jo Meredith) (First Appearance)
  • BEST Rookie Team
  • 3rd place Notebook
• Stewarts Creek Middle School — Stewarts Creek Robotics (Kevin Welch)
  • 1st place BEST Award
  • 2nd place Robot Competition
  • BEST Team Exhibits and Interview
  • 1st place Spirit Award
  • BEST Engineering Design Award
  • BEST Mascot Award
  • 15th in the nation
• Thurman Francis Arts Academy —Smyrna Robotics (Rhonda Halimi)
  • Most Robust Machine

By KEAIRA LOLOW, Rutherford County Schools