The Nipomo High School Titan Robotics team participated at the Bellarmine VEX Robotics Tournament at Bellarmine College Preparatory High School on Nov. 19, vying for the championship against 66 teams.
After a seven rounds each, the Titans qualified with the following results:
• Team 563B (a first year team)—10th place.
• Team 563X (a junior team)—16th place.
• Team 563 (the senior team)—26th place.
• Team 563C (another first year team)—29th place.
The 10th place team moved up during alliance picks to seventh (where the top eight teams pick two other robots to be their finals alliance to win the best of three matches).
Team 563B lost in the quarterfinals to the second place alliance, which included team 563, the eventual winners. Team 563X was picked by the fourth alliance captain as their first pick and lost in the semi-finals to the first place alliance.
Team 563 was the second pick of the No. 2 alliance and they proceeded to beat the No. 1 alliance in two straight matches of the finals, winning the first match 58-7 and the second with a very tight score of 23-19.
The win was team 563’s second championship of the year as they were also on the winning alliance in the first-ever local VEX VRC tournament held at Nipomo High School on Sept. 24. Both wins qualified the team for the VEX California State Championships in Bakersfield on March 3 and 4, 2017, and for the CREATE National Open Championships in Council Bluffs, Iowa, April 6 through 8, 2017.
Finishing at least second at the state championships will qualify Nipomo High to attend its ninth of 11 World Championships held at the Louisville Convention Center in Louisville, Ky., April 19 through 22, 2017.
“We have been very blessed by all the help our community has given us to participate over the 11 years in existence and made all of our competitions and travels possible,” Nipomo High teacher, advisor, and coach Greg Gracia said in a statement.
The team is also helping spread the excitement of robotics competitions to other Lucia Mar Unified School District schools, hosting elementary and middle school-level tournaments for the past two years.
Through the team’s efforts, 16 of the 18 Lucia Mar district schools will compete in the VEX Robotics Platform and one high school, Arroyo Grande, will compete in the FIRST Robotics platform. Gracia said he believes the experiences gained from these competitions are invaluable—namely collaboration, hands-on STEM activities, programming, communication, and sportsmanship skills, which students can take into college and the workplace.
NHS will run a VEX IQ league for teams on Dec. 3 at Dorthea Lange Elementary; Dec. 10 in the multi-purpose room at Arroyo Grande High School; Jan. 18 at Nipomo Elementary; and the finals on Jan. 25 at Grover Beach Elementary.
They will also host the second VEX VRC (middle school and high school level) tournament on Jan. 28 and a VEX IQ tournament on Feb. 4. Both events will be at Nipomo High’s Olympic Hall.
For more information, contact Gracia at greg.gracia@lmusd.org or visit them on Facebook at @NipomoRobotics.
This article appears in Dec 1-8, 2016.