News Photo by Jordan Spence Members of the Alcona 4-H Pineapple Scout team, Matt Good, 15, Janae Kierzek, 14 and Marius Spears, 10 work on their ROV before their next mission, Saturday during the Great Lakes Regional ROV MATE competition, at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

ALPENA — A couple of days before the Great Lakes Regional ROV MATE competition the Alpena UR2 team had a huge malfunction.

“We spent the last 48 hours fixing the ROV because it flooded and about 75 percent of the electronics were ruined,” said team captain Elizabeth Thomson, 17.

Thomson noted her teammate Katie Nicholson poured her heart and soul into the system after she worked on it for about two years.

“Luckily we had a backup system,” she said.

Despite this setback the team felt confident. This confidence paid off as the team won first place overall in the ranger division and they will now attend the world competition near Seattle later this year. The Stockbridge team took second place and Shelby Township took third.

In the Navigator division Petoskey took first, Shelby Township took second and Alcona took third. In the scout division the Alpena Waterbugs took first, St. Francis Xavier took second and Alcona took third.

The Alcona 4-H Pineapple scout team consisted of Matt Good, 15, Marius Spears, 10 and Janae Kierzek, 14. Kierzek said she thinks it’s a good experience and they learn a lot about teamwork.

“I think we did good for our first time. We have room to improve and we did really good on our presentation,” she said.

Along with their third place overall finish the team finished first in the engineering category.

“If you like competition this is good for that, and for underwater stuff, and building stuff. It’s good for people who like to build things,” Spears said.

Spears’s mother, Monica, said it’s awe inspiring to watch the kids work.

“It’s really encouraged my oldest to be an engineer. He’s (Marius) is my youngest and it’s given him something to strive for. At home he and his sister will communicate about the ROVs and bounce ideas off of each other,” she said.

Team mentor Jodi Mann has worked with the team the past couple of years, as did her husband John with the navigator team.

“It’s fun to watch the process,” she said.

When they work on an aspect of the project and finally get it to work is exciting, she said. The duo said they started to mentor after they asked their neighbor, Tracy D’Augustino, how they could volunteer with something STEM related.

“We start in January and think we have all this time, then in the last week it’s a scramble. They did great. I think they’re excited to be here. They really like talking with the other teams,” Mann said.

The Alpena scout team Team UDL, also had fun at the event.

The team consists of Reed Sexton, 13, Sylvie Luther, 11, and Thaddeus Tadian, 11. They said their favorite part was designing the robot. During competition they ran into an issue when a propeller fell off, but they fixed it in time for the next mission.

Volunteer Hannah Hazewinkel helped with the event for the the first time. She first learned about ROVs when she volunteered with an ROV class downstate.

“I’m just amazed at what these kids can do,” she said.

She noted the competition is a combination of a lot of skills like teamwork, strategy and professionalism.

“It’s so much all at once and some of them are as young as fifth-graders. I think learning how to communicate as a team and with adult professionals is an important skill for their future endeavors,” she said.

Jordan Spence can be reached via email at jspence@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.