TA News

This year, all seven of Thetford Academy’s VEX Robotics teams (two middle school teams and five high school teams) qualified to compete in the VT/NH State Championships. The event, hosted by Manchester Community College in Manchester, NH, was full of exciting matches and some disappointing losses.

At the end of the qualification matches, all TA teams were ranked in the top 20 (of 40 robots). In the elimination round, TA’s teams played well, and three of the four robots competing for the tournament championship were our own. In the end, team 4886W Wiseguys (Jesse Martin, Kai Slayton) and their alliance partner were victorious over 4886S String Theory (Connor Kutter-Walker, Duncan MacPhee, Elijah Renner) and 4886B (Bennett Mellen, Connor Sansom, Brycen Crossett). With this victory, 4886W qualified to compete at VEX Worlds, which will be held in St. Louis, Missouri in late April.

4886W wasn’t the only team to have qualified for Worlds. Earlier in the season, 4886S earned their place at Worlds by being the tournament champion at a Vex Signature Event in Maine. At States, 4886B earned the Middle School Excellence award by being a strong competitor in all aspects of the VEX competition. This earned them their qualification to Worlds. 4886Y Yogurt (Rowan Moody-A’ness, Aiden Ouelette, Jay Hill, Lucca Huling, and Tristan Woodward) scored a high score in the solo portion of the tournament (Skills), which also earned them a spot at Worlds.

Other awards and honorable mentions:

4886Y earned the Build Award, which recognizes a well-constructed robot that is constructed with a high degree of attention to detail in order to hold up to the rigors of competition.

4886S earned the Skills Champion Award, which is the award given to a team that has the highest combined score (driver-control and autonomous) in the solo portion of the tournament. This award double-qualified String Theory for Worlds.

4886A Arachnid (Meredith Sloop, Ira Corbett, Peter Horan, Zach Adams) succeeded in putting up a very strong performance through the 2v2 and solo portions of the tournament. At the end of the Qualifications, they were ranked 4th with seven wins and only one loss, and were ranked 9th in Skills.

4886C Clutch (Ian Kraemer, Judah Kol, Grayson Cooper, Luke McLane) ranked 20th after Qualifications and 23rd in Skills. This means that as a seventh-grade team, they beat about half of the other teams that qualified for States. (NOTE: most of those were high school teams)

4886Z Zig Zag (Jeffrey Stone, Kelvin Morse, Zane Henry) performed exceptionally well, considering this is the first year of VEX Robotics for all members of the team. After the qualification round, they were ranked 8th. In the skills portion of the tournament, they ranked 13th. Not bad at all!

Good luck to the teams whose seasons were extended as they prepare to compete against the top teams in the world!