The school’s Robotics team competed in the Cow Town Throwdown at Lee’s Summit High School on Friday, Oct. 24, and Saturday, Oct. 25. The junior and senior team ranked 29th overall, and the freshman and sophomore team ranked 32nd overall.
Although the competition is technically out of season for Robotics, it’s still a good way to get some practice in and feel more prepared before the new competition season starts. It also allows the older students to coach the newer ones, so they are more familiar with how competitions run.
Sophomore Alexander Rocha’s favorite part of the competition was the team’s energy.
“[My favorite part was] cheering on for the team when we won,” Rocha said. “We had fun and took some pictures.”
Senior and Robotics co-president Sam Bowling was happy with how well they did.
“Being the top robot on an alliance for the first time in a while was pretty enjoyable,” Bowling said. “Just because of that, like, we had a good time. We [also] won a lot of matches.”
Even though they performed well, there was a lot of maintenance that had to be done during the competition, which forced the team to be adaptable to problems.
“We had a lot of issues with consistency,” Bowling said. “A robot was not working very well for pretty much all of Saturday, which was a pretty big headache. We were stressed out and working on it the entire time.
We kept winning, but it was not working [as well as it could].”
There has also been a learning curve for the new Robotics sponsor, engineering teacher Brian Hagstrom.
“Challenges I face are trying to take in all this new information and learning all of the small details that are needed to get to that final, competition ready robot,” Hagstrom said. “I am trying to learn something each meeting, taking on a small role to start and building from there.”
Even though he is new, Hagstrom is glad to be a part of the team for this season.
“I am excited to be part of the process from start to finish this year,” Hagstrom said via email. “Last year was exciting, seeing the students celebrate as they made their way into the finals, and I hope to help make that goal of returning and winning possible.”
Despite all of the challenges, Bowling is optimistic for this upcoming Robotics season.
“We’re at our best at this moment,” Bowling said. “I have the most confidence going into this year that we have a shot of doing well, advancing past regionals and making it to the world championship in Houston.”
