Centerville student wins second place in national robotics competition
Aug 8, 2025
By Rob Blankenship
Carter Webb, a sixth-grade student at Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA), earned second place at the recent Stride K12 National Robotics Competition Championship in Reston, Virginia.
Webb and his teammate competed in the grades 4-6 category under the name MechTech Mechanics, and they were the youngest of the two teams representing OHVA’s robotics club in the final round.
Webb competed against two other teams from virtual schools around the country. The winners of each grade band were granted trophies and $500 each.
The final round involved teams coding a robot to move cubes on a flat surface to designated locations and parking their robot at the end.
OHVA’s Robotics Club is in its third year and has grown from one middle school team to more than 130 students across grades 4–12. The club is co-led by teachers Ken Sowers of Mentor and Kristie Fetty of Canton.
“What amazes me most is the amount of life skills these students gain — critical thinking, problem-solving, perseverance,” Fetty said. “They learn to try, analyze, adjust and try again, and those are lessons that go far beyond robotics.”
The club provides competitive and recreational coding experiences using the Virtual Robotics Toolkit and LEGO Mindstorms. The program aims to enhance technical skills, critical thinking, teamwork and adaptability.
Sowers, a special education teacher and Carter’s robotics coach at OHVA, has been teaching for 16 years and coaching robotics for three. He described Carter as a quiet but positive and dedicated student.