A number of local teams earned high marks — and some, state trips — following the state tournament-qualifying Austin Public Schools and Riverland College Southern Minnesota VRC (VEX Robotics Competition Tournament held Saturday in Austin.

All three of I. J. Holton Intermediate School’s teams earned state trips.

The sixth grade I.J. Holton team placed third in the tournament. The team earned a state invitation for their high skills points.

The team placed third out of 48 teams at the tournament, missing second by only two points. The team earned the Skills Champion Award.

“They worked incredibly hard and performed spectacularly,” said adviser Kaylene Jensen.

The Imperial George team was 15th in the tournament, and 10th in skills.

I.J. Holton’s Team C also received the Judges Award and Team B, the Teamwork Award. Team B and Southland schools teamed up to win the Head-to-Head challenge.

Other highlights:

The Ellis Middle School teams qualified for state at prior tournaments, and the eighth grade team receive its third Judges Award for the season, said adviser Tom Fritz.

Elementary level students also did well in the VEX IQ tournament.

Neveln’s team finished the qualifying matches in first, seventh and 14th place, but got beat out ink the finals.

Sumner Elementary’s Star Commanders qualified for the state tournament, and Banfield Elementary School earned the STEM Research Project Award.

List of rankings in VEX Robotics:

I.J Holton Engineers, third (A); Ellis Middle School, seventh (B), Imperial George, Austin, 15th; Mysterious George, Austin, 26th (A), Southland Mechbots, C, 32nd; Blooming Prairie, (A), 36th; Southland Rebelbots, 44th; Ellis Engineers (A), 45th.