Nine members of the robotics club journeyed to Boston University Academy recently to participate in a VEX Competition Qualifier for the Southern New England Regional Tournament. They returned with a trophy, sharing the win with an allied team.

The tournament is played on a 12-foot by 12-foot field. Two alliances — one red and one blue — composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a 15-second autonomous period followed by one minute and 45 seconds of driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by placing game pieces in your zones and by hanging robots on your hanging bar.

After competing in a series of matches, teams were ranked and given priority to select alliance partners. The top-ranked team, the Mecha Eagles from Saint John’s Preparatory School, selected the Williston Wildcat Robotics to join their alliance. According to the structure of the tournament, the alliance winning two out of three matches goes on from the quarter finals to the semi-finals, and then onto the finals. The Wildcats and the Eagles went all the way to capture the win.

The following students attended: Jack Long ’20, Drew Manory ’19, Keyu Lu ’20, Rider Bishop ’20, Yana Pyryalina ’18, Matthew Nguyen ’18, Alex Marwaha ’20, Mark Wang ’20, Kohmei Kadoya ’19. Other team members did not attend the event: Nhat Ha ’20, Sarah Markey ’22, Destiny Nwafor ’17, Glede Wang ’19, and Shirley Zhou ’18.

Congratulations Wildcats!