A last minute cancellation in the Skills Canada National Championships this year has once again put Yorkton Regional High School at the top of the country in robotics.
Brock Chiasson, Brad Guenther, James Thiessen and Shawn Furber took the silver medal in the Saskatchewan competition in April, then put away their robot for the year. A couple of days before nationals started in Saskatoon May 27, however, the Regina team that won provincials dropped out.
The YRHS team put their robot back together the day before the contest started and waded into the fray against some strong competition from Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario. At the end of the weekend, Saskatchewan was left holding gold, Newfoundland and Labrador silver and Ontario bronze.
This is the third national championship in four years for YRHS robotics.
An extension to the Regional robotics program is Stem and Control Systems, which are used in such things as elevators and automatic doors. Blake Chiasson and Matthew Breitkreuz won silver at provincials, but the national result was not available at press time.
Other Yorktonites representing SaskatÂchewan in Saskatoon last weekend included Dustin Balabuck in Automotive Service, Paige Swan in Hairstyling and Sarah Kushniruk in Aesthetics. None of these students won medals at the national competition.
