Huntington County 4-H Robotics Team 1501

05/03/2026

What a season it’s been for Huntington County 4-H Robotics, Team 1501!

Starting back in January, our team hit the ground running and never looked back. At our first district event in Mishawaka, we went 17-1, ranked 1st, and brought home the District Event Winner along with the Imagery Award. We followed that up in Lafayette with another strong showing—finishing 15-2, ranking 2nd, earning another Event Win, and receiving the Innovation in Control Award. That momentum carried us to the Indiana State Championship, where we ranked 6th and were honored with the Quality Award.

That hard work earned us a spot at the FIRST World Championship in Houston. While the results weren’t exactly what we were aiming for, the experience was incredibly valuable. Competing against top teams from around the world gave us new perspective, new ideas, and even more motivation heading into next season. One of the biggest highlights was visiting Space Center Houston—a special thank you to the Don Wood Foundation for making that opportunity possible.

We are incredibly grateful to our sponsors, mentors, families, and supporters who made this journey possible. Because of you, our students gained real-world experience, built lasting memories, and came back inspired. We’re already getting to work—diving into offseason training, learning Onshape, and preparing to use the new Alt Mill CNC machine generously donated by Steel Dynamics.

This concludes our 2026 season. Photos from our journey can be viewed here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/teamthrust1501/collections

More will be added as we transition into the offseason, where we continue to teach, learn, and grow our passion for STEM.

Thank you so many countless other sponsors, PHD, Inc., YRG, Inc., MEI Fort Wayne, BioNanomics, The Refinery, Carrier, BAE Systems, Inc., Raytheon, see the whole list here:
http://huntingtonrobotics.org/sponsors/

04/21/2026

This past weekend, Huntington County 4‑H Robotics — Team THRUST 1501 — competed at the Indiana State Championship at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, seeding 6th out of 38 teams from across the state. Although we did not take home the State title, the team delivered a strong performance and advanced deep into the elimination rounds, finishing as semifinalists. Combined with our two earlier District wins, our results earned enough points to qualify for the FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas. We also won the Quality Award at State!
https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/1501

On April 27 our students will travel to Houston, TX with their robot to compete, collaborate with teams from around the world, and visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center for an inspiring STEM experience.

If local businesses and individuals are interested in helping these students with travel, lodging, and transportation, please email [email protected] for more information.

All of this is possible because of our amazing sponsors and mentors who spend countless hours working with students who are eager to learn and be part of a team.

FIRST Robotics Competition team from Huntington, Indiana, USA.

03/30/2026

What a fun weekend at the Lafayette District Event. On Friday, our Safety Captain picked up an award for Safety Allstar, an award that is chosen by her peers from other teams.

Team T.H.R.U.S.T. 1501 ranked 2nd out of 36 teams heading into the playoffs with a record of 10-2.

We were picked by the 1st-ranked team, Team 7457 Supurdueper Robotics, to join their alliance along with Team 4580 Conductors, and we were happy to play alongside them in the playoffs.

Alliance #1 went undefeated throughout the playoffs, and we brought home another blue banner this season. We also set the high score record in Indiana in our first finals match.

During the awards segment, Team T.H.R.U.S.T. 1501 was awarded the 2026 Innovation in Controls Award from the Lafayette District Competition. It is an honor to receive this award and also a testament to the hard work of our team preparing for competitions.

We would like to thank all of our amazing sponsors for the support they provide our team, which allows us to be competitive when we show up for competitions.

Next stop: State Championships - April 17-19.

03/09/2026

What an amazing weekend in Mishawaka at Week 1 FIRST Indiana Robotics Competition. Team T.H.R.U.S.T. 1501 brought home a 1st place victory with a 17-1 record for the weekend. Our alliance, Team 3940 CyberTooth, and Team 10434 Cybears helped secure the victory.

The team also brought home the Imagery Award, and on Saturday, our Safety Captain brought home the Safety All-Star Award.

Results like this truly show the dedication the students and mentors on the team have shown. It was a long 7-week build season with many revisions, and fine-tuning the robot for week 1.

We are especially thankful for all of our great sponsors; without our sponsors, we wouldn't be able to provide a competitive robot.

Our next competition is in Lafayette, week 4.

02/18/2026

Join us on March 3, 2026, for the Robot Reveal and Open House.

02/05/2026

What gets your team excited? Is it talking about drivetrain, or fuel that needs to be scored? On Team 1501, we talk about the most important things on our Discord server...

We are serious about our Robot, but we never turn down an opportunity to discuss what delicious food we eat. That is the best kind of fuel for a robotics team.

What is your teams goto meal?

01/30/2026

This is legal... right? Chris Elston - can we make it fit?

01/23/2026

Thank you to all our mentors this year! We appreciate all that you do! 🤖

10/31/2025

Huntington Robotics Open House for our 22nd Robotics Season!
November 11th, 2025. 6-8PM at Huntington County Community Learning Center.

The purpose of Huntington County 4-H Robotics is to empower young minds in our community with engineering, business and leadership knowledge in order to gain scientific and problem solving skills for use in their future endeavors. Through our 4-H special interest group, students will learn how to co...

03/31/2025

What an unforgettable weekend at the FIN District Washington Event! 🤖

We came to tune up our robot, and came home with our 3rd blue banner of the year.
With some troubles during qualifications, we ranked 5th at the end of the qualifications matches.

Turns out, FUN was right. We were over the moon when the Alliance 1 captain, selected us for the alliance. 10492 joined the alliance to help make 1501 history. With this win, we have now won all 4 of our last events.

When we weren’t on the field or fine-tuning our robot in the pit, we were cheering on other teams as well as helping other teams with their robots. We hope that we will come to the FIN State Championship better than ever!
What an amazing 3 districts! We know this wouldn’t be possible without, and would like to thank, our sponsors! PHD, Inc., Shuttleworth YRG, Inc.Ecolab Huntington County 4-H Beacon Credit Union Allison Transmission