Rio Rancho schools face off in stand-alone 'SumoBot' competition

RIO RANCHO — If there ever was a correlation between sumo wrestlers and robotics, look no further than what occurred May 7 inside the gymnasium of Lincoln Middle School.

That’s where Rio Rancho Public Schools held a stand-alone “SumoBot” competition in which middle and elementary school teams pitted their robots against one another in 30-second matches to see which one could knock the other out of a ring— much like a sumo wrestling match. The robots operated autonomously.

Eagle Ridge Middle School, Lincoln Middle School, Mountain View Middle School, Rio Rancho Cyber Academy, Rio Rancho Middle School and Puesta Del Sol Elementary School all competed for first, second and third place.

The final round between Eagle Ridge and Mountain View was something of a cliffhanger, as the schools’ two bots seemed to hold each other and circle around like ballroom dancers, much to the delight of students and judges. But eventually, a bot was pushed out of the ring. Eagle Ridge, with its robot “Dozer” (short for “bulldozer”), won.

The euphoria in the gym at that moment felt much like the end of the World Series, with Eagle Ridge seventh graders Parker Clayton and Noah-James Rasp jumping up and down, hugging and high-fiving their teammates.

“It feels so nice to ... have the freedom of winning,” Clayton said.

He said the last round had him terrified, and “anxiety was flowing through me” as he hoped for a win. Rasp said he was “super scared,” and the last round felt “crazy.”

But maybe it was the boys’ mindset going into the competition that set them apart from their peers.

“I just came in (to the competition) and thought, ‘Let’s do this,’ and I just had spirits, and it was really fun,” Clayton said.

Rasp added that he felt confident about winning, “So let’s make the most of it, even if we don’t.’”

Team coach and Eagle Ridge robotics instructor Brian Shaver attributed Clayton and Rasp’s team’s success to their hard work.

“As a class, they were never satisfied. They continually battled each other in class, trying to find weaknesses, and then improved their design and program based on those class battles,” Shaver wrote in an email to the Observer.

The top three teams earned a gold, silver, and bronze medal, respectively. A plaque engraved with the school name and year will be displayed at the winning school until the next competition.