LANSING, MI -- Students from across Michigan will be heading to a robotics world championship.

A total of 18 high school teams from Michigan qualified for the 2020 VEX Robotics World Games in Louisville, Kentucky on April 22. The teams earned spots based on their performances at the state championships this week.

Those who qualified include teams from Grandville High School, Hudsonville High School, Caledonia High School, Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint, Grand Traverse Academy, Harbor Beach High School and Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills.

The 2020 Michigan VEX Robotics State Championship featured 80 teams. About 1,500 teams are expected to compete in the world games.

A two-team alliance of Grandville High Schools Cataclyst Team and Hudsonville High Schools Q Team took home the top prize of Tournament Champions at the state competition.

That was a great moment," said Grandville High School senior Owen Green, a team captain for the Cataclyst team. "That was something since May I had the goal that I wanted to go and win the state championship.

"And weve been getting so close to winning other tournaments but havent been able to follow through. So finally when we got to states everything just kind of went the way we needed it to and our hard work and perseverance paid off.

Nine of the 18 teams from Michigan that qualified for the world competition come from Grandville. Doug Hepfer, a coach at Grandvilles robotics program, the RoboDawgs, said nine teams is the largest amount of teams going to the competition from a single school district.

Hepfer said there is a bunch of stuff going on in Grandville around this, and our teams tend to be fairly successful." The 22-year-old program recently got a bond to build an addition to the Robotics & Engineering Center to accommodate the increasing amount of students involved.

The state competition was held at Michigan State Universitys Jenison Field House.

Drew Kim, assistant to the dean for recruitment, scholarship and K-12 outreach in the MSU College of Engineering, said the university is happy to promote STEM education for high school students.

VEX introduces students to basic robot innovation, working together, troubleshooting and team fun," he said. "MSU is very proud to nurture these young engineers and designers for Michigans technology future.

Towers are placed around the playing field, where players get points by using their robots to pile the cubes onto the towers or by placing them in a goal. The opposing team can try to block the other teams movement of the cubes.

Luckily, we played with a really good Hudsonville tray bot as well and that allowed us to complement each other well, said Green, the Grandville student. And when it came down to the heavy defense we had in the finals we were able to cope with it a lot better than the other team could.

It will be Greens third time at the world championship.

I enjoy the challenge of trying to make something better out of something that already works well, and trying to kind of keep improving and then that drive just to do well, Green said.

Here is a full list of the winners of the 2020 MSU VEX High School State Championship:

Excellence Award: Cataclyst (Team 288A), Grandville High School

Tournament Champions: A two-team alliance of Cataclyst (Team 288A), Grandville High School and Q (Team 8031E) of Hudsonville High School

Innovate Award: VIRUS: Murphys Law (Team 3547Y), Technology First of Monroe

Create Award: Semi-Good (Team 98271B), Caledonia High School

Amaze Award: The A Team (Team 244D), Grandville Community Education

Build Award: Light Switch (Team 248A), Grandville Robotics

Design Award: MO Peeps (Team 1375D), Carman-Ainsworth High School, Flint

Think Award: Pi IS 3 (Team 7567C), Grand Traverse Academy

Judges Award: Pirates (Team 15017D), Harbor Beach High School

Robot Skills Champion: Just Act Natural (Team 244C), Grandville Community Education

Tournament Finalists: Just Act Natural (Team 244C), Grandville Community Education, and The A Team (Team 244D), Grandville Community Education

Tournament Semifinalists: Bring Back D.D. (Team 244B), Grandville Community Education; Light Switch (Team 248A), Grandville Robotics; Falcon (Team 98725B), Rochester Hills Christian School; and (Team 39A), Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills

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18 Michigan high school robotics teams headed to world championship - MLive.com