BY KAREN BOSSICK
Three Wood River High School students recently pulled off a hat trick at the final regular season robotics tournament leading up to the Idaho VEX Robotics State Championship.
The championship will be held Friday, Feb. 22, at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa.
Ethan Gray, Asher Holden and Tate Pearce won all three top honors at the tournament at Vallivue High School in Caldwell, winning Tournament Champion, the Excellence Award and the Skills Award.
Two other BCBots teams were also tournament finalists.
One of those teams was made up of Sam Bingham, Griff Connelly, Luke Dean and Ethan Wilson. The other was made up of Josh Blacker, Markus Pettinger and Hayden Wilson.
Those teams plus two teams from Wood River Middle School have overwhelmed the competition during the 2918-19 season, collectively winning all five tournaments they attended and capturing the Excellence Award category in each.
“The students have worked exceptionally hard for the success they’ve achieved this season,” said Kevin Lupton, WRHS Engineering teacher and robotics team coach. “I know they’re hoping to continue that momentum and repeat their outstanding results at the state championship later this month.”
The state contest is free to spectators. The top four teams will qualify for the VEX World Championship in Louisville, Ky. In April. The BC Bots program has qualified teams for the world championship for the past three years.
The VEX Robotics Competition, the largest and fastest growing youth robotics program in the world, challenges students to design, build and code robots to address various challenges and put their creations to the test in matches and tournaments.
This year’s challenge requires competitors to amass points by launching balls at target flags, flip colored caps and place them on poles and park their robots in raised platforms—all within two minutes.