For the third straight year, John T. Morgan Academy took home the best overall award at the Selma BEST Robotics competition.

Martin Middle School came away with first place in the robotics part of the contest for the second consecutive year.

In addition to building a robot and having it perform tasks, the competition also requires an oral presentation, educational display, engineering notebook as well as spirit and sportsmanship scores.

Both Morgan and Martin Middle qualified for the regional competition at Auburn University on the first Saturday of December.

“We were sort of worried because we had to do a lot of last minute adjustments, but, in the end, it really paid off,” said Morgan sophomore and robotics team president Kellee Scheer. “Just the excitement of everyone — it’s a really great atmosphere and energy.”

The scene Thursday at Wallace Community College Selma was full of cheering students.

For some of the schools, the competition was the first time they have ever competed.

Valley Grande Elementary was one of those new teams, but they quickly let competitors know they were in it to win it. The team was awarded third place for their robot.

Another first-year team breaking into the semifinals was Meadowview Christian School.

The Trojans were in fourth place heading into the semifinals, but were knocked out of the finals when their robot malfunctioned.

But even though they didn’t take home a trophy, Meadowview senior Tyler Hughes said he enjoyed the competition.

“It’s really exciting seeing all of our hard work unfold, being here being able to represent our school,” Hughes said. “It’s been the highlight of this month for us.”

Martin Middle School was also awarded third place overall, behind Dallas County High School’s second place finish.

“It’s actually really fun. You get to experience a lot of things you wouldn’t get to experience normally in school,” said Martin eighth grader Emily Threadgill. “It’s really fun to get to learn about it and compete with all these fellow schools.”

Students from each of the schools were decked out with their school’s colors and some even brought their mascots to help cheer on the robot drivers.

Dallas County brought a large crowd, and ended up winning the best spirit and sportsmanship award.

The Hornets also received the marketing presentation award.

Keith High School ran into some trouble during the competition, but after sticking it out and never giving up, the Bears were awarded the Honda Lock “stick-to-itiveness” award. They also won for best T-shirts.

To round out the awards, Martin Middle took home first place in the team exhibit and engineering notebook.