ADAMS — Sacred Heart Catholic School in Adams earned three out of the top eight awards in the middle school division of a statewide robotics competition Feb. 2-3 in St. Cloud.

The Sacred Heart team won the Excellence Award at the Minnesota  Vex IQ Challenge, earning team members a trip to the World Championships in Kentucky in April.

In the VEX IQ Challenge, teams of students design and build a robot to play with other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. Tournaments are held year-round at the regional, state and national levels and culminate at the VEX Robotics World Championship.

The Sacred Heart team, coached by teacher Sandy Johnson, includes students Noah Goergen, Theo Smith, Lawson Jax, Micah Johnson, Easton Meyer, Riley Jax, Miriam Smith, Ethan Payne, Gage Anderson, Bryson Kellogg, Royce Jax, Ava McCabe, Kailyn Schneider, Brynn Sathre and Jaida Sorenson.

The team also earned the Sportsmanship award, and the STEM Presentation award, for a project on vaccinating drones, according to Johnson.

This marks the first year the school has used Vex Robotics. The school hosted two teams in fourth to sixth grade. The teams earned six awards or qualifications for the state contest at regional events.

At two of the regional events, the teams won Teamwork Champion and Excellence Award at each; the Design Award at one and STEM presentation at the other.