Last month the CHS Robotics freshman team attended their first competition on Nov. 23 at a Southcentral league meet to compete against 16 other teams from Anchorage, Wasilla, Kodiak and Seward. Due to ferry cuts and travel expenses CHS could only send a single team to their one regular season event, the students voted to send the freshman so they could gain experience and prepare for the upcoming state qualifiers regional event in December.
The team headed out Nov. 22 and immediately ran into travel woes with the plane from Yakutat being canceled due to a lightning strike. The team was rerouted through Juneau, making it to Anchorage late that evening. The team anxiously headed to the Southcentral league tournament at Dimond High School in Anchorage the next morning, ready to make their first appearance.
At competition the robot teams usually have five matches, being randomly paired with an alliance team for each match. The CHS freshman was assigned their matches and immediately started scouting their alliance partners to form strategies and game plans. This year’s game, titled “Skystone,” consists of the robots having to move and stack giant Lego bricks called “stones” with several ways to score points.
As matches began during the day the CHS team stood out from the competition with their unique robot design and reliable intake system to collect and place the ‘stones’. The team was paired with one of the veteran Dimond school teams and easily won their first match. The second match the team had a power failure and unfortunately the robot didn’t run in the match resulting in a loss for their alliance.
The Wolverines moved into the final fifth match with a 2-2 average and likely seen as underdogs given they faced a very strong alliance of seasoned Anchorage teams. Partnered with Kodiak, the CHS team formed a solid strategy with their partners and went into the match optimistic to hold their ground. During the first 30 seconds the CHS-Kodiak alliance was down 20-to-10 switching into the driver period of two minutes. Robots went racing to collect and stack stones in a flurry of fast-moving metal, with the CHS team being the only ones able to gain full points for stacking the stones on their target. As the match came to an end, the score board showed the Anchorage team having a superior advantage, but final scores were still being tallied. The crowd and students all hinged on their seats waiting for the final score, 62-to-61, the CHS-Kodiak alliance won the last match of the day.
The CHS freshman team consisting of Braden Beckett, Gracie Hatch and Jacob Ranney represented Cordova well, learned a lot from the competition, and took a surprisingly strong fifth place at the event. The students have already started on upgrades to prepare for the regional competition in Wasilla on Saturday, Dec. 7 where all three CHS robotics teams will go to compete for a spot to attend the state competition in February.
