BRHS Robotics Teams compete in first qualifier of the season 12/14/24 - Yarmouth, ME On Saturday, 40 Robotics teams from high schools and middle schools around the state participated in a qualifying VEX Robotics competition at Yarmouth Elementary School, sponsored by the Robotics Institute of Maine and Swift Current energy. Boothbay Region High School’s teams competed against teams from Cape Elizabeth, Bangor, Yarmouth, York, Monmouth, Bangor, and other communities.

BRHS sent three teams to this qualifier: “Specter Meese,” represented by Afton Warren-Burdin and Silas Lehoullier; “Team Rocket,” represented by Mason Paquette, Thomas Babineau, and Kora McKenney; and “The Knee Slappers,” represented by Kolton McKenney, Lucian Stoddard, and Brandon Seigers. Mathew Jackson also attended the event in support of the teams, who were coached by teachers Chris Liberti, Kristen Hanley, and Stephen Gottlieb.

The competition started with qualifying matches and each team participated in eight matches during the morning hours. In the afternoon, the Round of 16 began the single elimination bracket, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final match of the top two alliances.

In this portion of the event, Team Rocket and the Specter Meese were both chosen to be part of alliances moving into the Round of 16. Unfortunately, Team Rocket was eliminated in this round with a score of 17-3. The Specter Meese, however, won their match with a score of 14-11, which allowed them to advance to the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinals, The Specter Meese were defeated by a slim margin of 12-8. Afton Warren-Burdin, a member of the team who is in his third year of robotics with BRHS, had this to say about his team’s performance at their first competition of the year: “Although the beginning of the qualifying rounds didn’t go well, we improved over the course of the competition and beat the odds to make the quarterfinals.” Silas Lehoullier added, “we had a good idea, but we need to improve upon the concepts that we already have in place.”

The BRHS coaches are incredibly proud of their teams’ first effort in Yarmouth. They hope to see improvement from the teams at future competitions in Cape Elizabeth and Monmouth in an effort to advance to the state competition on March 1st in South Portland. For more information about robotics in Maine, please visit https://www.rimaine.org/ or https://www.vexrobotics.com/.