Team 111 Wildstang, the District 214 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team for juniors and seniors, won first place with their alliance at the Midwest Regional. Their performance March 9th through March 11th qualified them for the FRC World Championships in Houston at the end of April, and Team 111 won the Industrial Design Award. Team 112 Plus One, built by first and second year robotics students from schools across D214, got 6th place with their alliance, and hopes to qualify for World Champs at the Seven Rivers Regional over spring break.

This year’s FRC game, Charged Up, revolves around placing cones and cubes on different levels of scoring nodes to get the most points. At the beginning of each game, there is a 15 second autonomous period in which robots are controlled by preprogrammed commands, and a human driver and operator control the robot for the remaining 135 seconds of the game. Robots can also score by resting on or fully balancing on the Charging Station, a moving platform part of the field.

“It was really fun. I liked going to the pits (the workspace where all 46 robots were held when not in a match) and talking to kids from other teams.” said Team 112 sophomore Tejasvi Prattipati from the electrical subteam.

“I think we were one of the coolest teams there. It was great when we got to play that one match where 111 and 112 were on the same team, and that match we set the record for the highest score at the regionals so far. That was a crazy awesome match, and we worked so well together,” said senior Nathan Witt from 111 Wildstang’s software subteam. The match mentioned by Witt was Qualification Match 74, in which 111 and 112 got to play on the same side after being randomly sorted into qualifying matches, and was a proud moment for both teams. It can be watched here.

Nick “Strez” Strzelecki, head coach of both teams, said “I am so proud of the entire program and our performance at Midwest Regional. I know the kids have been working really hard and it was nice to see that it paid off with our performances at the competition. I am very grateful and thankful that we have such an amazing opportunity for our students. The amount of love and support that we have from the District and School Board is outstanding and our Mentors and Coaches, who continue to amaze me every day, are second to no one. We are looking forward to our next competition at 7 Rivers Regional and eventually Champs in Houston Texas.”