The Aragon Robotics Team (ART) went to Madera from March 1 to March 3 to compete in the Central Valley Robotics Regional (CVR). In the competition, each school was paired with two other schools and competed against another team of three schools. The robots had to shoot frisbees across a 27 feet by 54 feet field. The second task of the competition gave teams the chance to earn 10, 20 or 30 points; robots had an allotted time to try to climb as high as they could on a pyramid set up on the field. Forming an alliance with Team 1678 (The Citrus Circuits) and Team 295 (Renevatio), ART’s alliance won first place out of the 38 teams.
The team took a pit crew and general members of the team to Madera. However, not all ART members came to the competition. Junior and ART member Yuki Chin, who did not attend the event, says, “I watched the competition through a live stream. It is still so surreal. I have to keep reminding myself that we actually did it.”
Senior Lauren Chan says, “We had a really consistent shooter, so as long we could get into the correct position to shoot, we dominated in scoring.”
Because the Aragon Robotics Team qualified at CVR for the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship held in St. Louis but did not win an award, they would be expected to pay a $5,000 registration fee. In addition to the $5,000 already paid for the Silicon Valley Regional (SVR), the team hopes to raise another $5,000 in order to go to championships.
