The Robotics team placed 16 out of 43 teams at their second regional contest in St. Louis, MO Friday, March 23-Saturday, March 24.

The team’s robot proved to be particularly strong at shooting and making baskets. Although the robot tipped over a few times in attempt to balance on a bridge, the team made it to the last qualifying round with alliance Team 1288.

“We were one of [Team 1288]’s picks in the three team alliance pairing for the final and quarter final rounds, but the seventh alliance picked us before they had the chance and you can’t say no,” sponsor Mary Beth Mattingly said. “We knew we were paired up with teams that weren’t as strong as we would’ve liked, but we made the most of it.”

The alliance attempted a three robot balance on one bridge, which could earn them 40 points. They almost succeeded twice, but the bridge didn’t stabilize before the buzzer went off.

“The whole stadium was in an uproar rooting for our three bots to make it all on one bridge,” Mattingly said.

Sophomore Andrew Hecht thought the team did exceptional.

“We did pretty fantastic,” Hecht said. “We worked really hard to build our robot functionally.”

Sophomore Alyssa Hobson agrees.

“I think we did well overall and made significant improvement from our last competition,” Hobson said. “Our robot was able to both shoot and balance with a high level of accuracy.”

This was the fourth consecutive year that the team has been in the final rounds at regionals.