Burlington High School Advances to BEST Regional Robotics Championship for Fifth Straight Year

November 5, 2025

Burlington High School’s robotics team won the BEST Award after two days of competition in the Heartland BEST Robotics contest at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. The team also placed second in the Robot Game competition, was the winner of the Founder’s Award for Creative Design, along with the Best Spirit and Sportsmanship award. This marks Burlington’s fifth consecutive overall victory and advancement to the regional championship in Wichita, Kansas, Dec. 6-7.

Burlington High School robotics team members Rebecka Carlson and Wyatt Morgan compete in the final rounds of the Heartland BEST Robotics competition at Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Alva. Burlington will once again represent the Heartland BEST contest at the regional competition in Wichita, Kansas, Dec. 6-7.

Arnett High School placed second in the overall BEST Award, automatically advancing the team to the BEST Regional Championship in Wichita, Kansas, Dec. 6-7. Arnett also placed first in the Robot Game contest and won the Most Elegant Robot award.

Jennifer Newlin (left), Burlington High School Robotics Team Coach, is the winner of the 2025 Coach of the Year Award given out during the awards ceremony at the Heartland BEST Robotics Competition at Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Alva. Dr. Jenny Sattler presented the plaque.

ALVA, Okla. – Burlington High School captured first place in the BEST Award category during the Heartland BEST robotics competition Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Alva campus, marking its fifth consecutive win and advancement to the regional championship, this year to be in Wichita, Kansas, Dec. 6-7.

Joining Burlington in Wichita to compete for the BEST Award is Arnett High School, which returns to regionals after advancing last year. Arnett Junior High, in its first time competing independently from the high school team, also advances to regionals to compete in the game component.

These teams will compete against other teams from Colorado, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Dakota, as well as Oklahoma teams from the OKBest hub in Oklahoma City.

Locally, the first- and second-place BEST Award winners—Burlington and Arnett High Schools—automatically qualified for regionals, along with the top Robot Game finisher not already advancing, Arnett Junior High.

The BEST Award, locally and at regionals, combines five components: engineering notebook, marketing presentation, team exhibit and interview, spirit and sportsmanship, and robot performance. The weighted average scores determine the overall winners.

All advancing teams can also compete for special awards like T-shirt design, most photogenic robot, or the Founders Award for Creative Design.

All BEST teams received identical kits of parts to design and build their robots over the past eight weeks. This year’s game, Factoids, featured an artificial intelligence theme that challenged teams to complete a series of field tasks.

A breakdown of all awards from the Heartland BEST 2025 competition is as follows:

BEST Award: first, Burlington High School; second, Arnett High School; third, Lawton Academy of Arts & Science

Robot Game Award: first, Arnett High School; second, Burlington High School; third, Arnett Junior High; fourth, Persimmon Creek Robotics

BEST Coach of the Year: Jennifer Newlin, Burlington High School

Special Awards: Most Elegant Robot, Arnett High School; Most Photogenic Robot, Lawton Academy; Most Robust Robot, Persimmon Creek Robotics; Founders Award for Creative Design, Burlington High School

Best T-shirt Award: (as voted by the teams) Alva Robotics

BEST Spirit and Sportsmanship Award: Burlington High School

Three Northwestern faculty members serve as BEST co-directors including Dr. Tim Maharry, chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science department and professor of mathematics, who also serves as the head of sponsorship and finance and the BEST Award; Dr. Mary Riegel, professor of mathematics, who also serves as the game committee chair, and Dr. Jenny Sattler, chair of the Department of Natural Science and professor of physics, who also serves as the kit committee chair.

Others on the committee include other Northwestern faculty, Alva community members and the families of committee members, including Dr. Adam Alber, assistant professor of chemistry; Dr. Roxie James, chair of the English, Foreign Language and Humanities department and associate professor of English; Dr. Kennan Meeker, assistant professor of mathematics; Dr. Jason Wickham, professor of chemistry; and Dave Riegel, Sandy Riegel, Dena Riegel, and Kalynn Samples.

More information is available from Maharry at (580) 327-8583 or tjmaharry@nwosu.edu or at www.nwosu.edu/school-of-arts-and-sciences/natural-science/heartland-best.

 

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