Robotics competed in the League Championships at Cedar Creek High School on Friday. Viperbots went up against 47 teams from the Austin area.

“I am so proud of the teams,” robotics sponsor and Computer Science teacher Tamany Wendel said. “[I am] proud of all the hard work they have put in the last six months.”

Teams had to present their robot to a panel of judges, known for careers in STEM, and then compete in a drive portion, where they had to maneuver their robot to complete a challenge.

“I drive the robot,” junior Tim Tersigni said. “I like the competition aspect of the whole thing. After working hard on the robot you get to see how your [robot] compares to everyone else’s.”

Students faced unexpected challenges but eight out of twelve teams advanced to the Alamo FTC Regional competition in San Antonio.

“Overall I think we did good,” senior Nolan Ward said. “Our robot had a lot of problems that we weren’t expecting, but we still placed fairly well and we did good in terms of our presentation.”

Students attended previous league competitions and scrimmages with other schools, held mock judging interviews, and created presentations to prepare for the Championship.

“This [was] our fourth competition,”  sophomore Kylee Adrian said. “We’ve mainly been fixing up our robot and improving it, because we have the basis down. We just need to make it a little better.”

Robotics isn’t just another extracurricular activity at Vandegrift. Students say that they have grown close to one another and have built good relationships with their teammates.

“My favorite part about robotics is meeting new people.” Adrian said. “Because whenever you’re in robotics it’s like a family organization and even though there’s a lot of different teams we all work together.”