Eliot Prusa | Staff Writer for “The Mount”
On Saturday, Jan. 7, hundreds of high school students and fans packed into the Mount Michael gymnasium for an intense competition. This competition wasn’t a sport of physical strength or speed. It was the 2012 Heartland Vex Robotics Tournament, and teams from across the state had built robots to compete in this year’s game, called “Gateway.”
“Gateway”
is played with two alliances, one “red” and one “blue,” each with two
teams. The alliances compete in matches consisting of one twenty-second
“autonomous period,” followed by two minutes of driver-controlled play.
Essentially, the object of the game is to attain a higher score than
the other alliance by scoring barrels and putting balls in goals. Teams
can also earn bonus points by doubling or negating goals.
This year, the leading Mount Michael team was entitled
“The Sleepless Knights.” The team consists of juniors Josh Bloomquist,
Tony Gao, Paul Kujawa, and Yun Sik Oh, as well as senior Ned McNally.
“We have a great mix of personalities on the team this year. Everyone
has their opinions on what direction we should take when building the
robot, and definitely it keeps things interesting,” said McNally.
On Saturday, the Sleepless Knights faired quite well.
They finished the qualifying rounds in seventh place out of 43 teams,
and moved on to the eight alliance elimination bracket. “We were up
against the number two seed. We won the first of three matches, then we
thought we won the second match, but it was actually a tie,” said
Kujawa. “Then we lost the next match. It was 1-1, so we had to win the
next one, then we tied again, than we came up short in the last match.”
Despite the disappointing loss, the Sleepless Knights
chose to look at the positive side of things. “All things considered, it
went pretty well. Obviously, our goal is to win every tournament we
compete in, but seventh place is nothing to hang our heads about,” said
Bloomquist.
And when it comes to robotics, winning isn’t everything.
“The Robotics program’s number one priority has always been teaching
students about teamwork, dedication, and technology, with a good mix of
intense competition,” said McNally.
