Max Stahl, staff writer
The robotics team traveled to St. Louis on April 23 to compete in the international FIRST Robotics Competition, in which the team failed to advance beyond qualifications and into the elimination round.
Matches required robots to shoot discs into tall, vertical targets and climb pyramids in order to score points. Breaking from its strategy at its previous two competitions, the robotics team designed a defensive robot for the St. Louis tournament. Although most team members agree this was a sound decision in theory, it did not work out for this competition, as no defensive teams were selected to advance to the elimination round.
“Unfortunately nobody wanted a defensive team. So while we performed all right, it ended up not being something that we needed, which was strange, because every year there’s always a defensive team that makes it to the elimination round. This was an odd year that it didn’t work out,” robotics mentor Kevin Bowers said.
Although the team did not advance as far as it had hoped, most team members are still satisfied with their robot’s performance. The team is particularly proud of having beaten Team 303, which had previously been undefeated, and ended up reaching a much later round of the tournament than did Beverly’s team.