Robotics Team Qualifies For World, First Time in Thirteen Years
After a successful run at regionals in Arizona, the robotics team headed to Texas for the world championships.
By Sydney Teves
After a successful run at regionals in Arizona, the robotics team headed to Texas for the world championships.
By Sydney Teves
After a rocky start at the Arizona East Regional in Scottsdale, Arizona, from March 15 to March 19, the Apes of Wrath, Pioneer’s robotics team won first place and qualified for FIRST Robotics Championship.
The last time the team qualified for world championships was in 2009. Since then, they have attended Championships a total of four times, this year making it five, but until this year, they have been doing it off of a waitlist, not because they qualified.
To begin the season, second-year member Jack Vierhus, 10, and the rest of the team watched Kickoff and then for eight hours brainstormed ideas for their 2023 robot.
“The season started with something called Kickoff, which is a livestream where they announce the game. This year we hosted Kickoff in the PAC and had a bunch of teams, as well as PG&E's CEO attend,” said Vierhus.
Keila Pound, 12, the Apes of Wrath President, guided the team through the brainstorming before they started their build season and worked together on their robot for over 20 hours a week.
“This season seemed like a difficult one initially, as the game pieces we had to score were odd, cones and inflatable cubes. But, we had tons of prototype ideas that we wanted to try out,” said Pound.
Going into regionals, the team was ranked 26 out of 37 teams but got lucky and were chosen by the first seat alliance. Lonny Weissman, who taught math at Pioneer for 11 years, is the lead mentor for the team and wasn’t expecting to make it far in the tournament because of their initial placement.
“We started off really poorly. We lost the first five matches that we were in out of the 12 that we were going to be in,” said Weissman. “We finished actually 4-8 to give you an idea how badly we felt we were doing, but we went 5-0 in the finals. I was amazed that they kept fighting and never gave up.”
Team Vice President Lexi Muraco, 10, finds that all the time that is required for them to finish their robot allows them to get to know each other well and allows them to better celebrate their big wins together.
“After working for 25 hours a week for six weeks, it is extremely rewarding to see all of our hard work pay off at competition,” said Muraco.
When the team realized they had won regionals, many members were surprised. Len Elkjer, 12, who has been on the team for two years, experienced a reaction common among the rest of the members since they were surprised but glad with the team’s victory.
“I felt an extreme rush of happiness and utter shock over the fact that we won, I even started crying,” said Elkjer. “I’m very excited as this is a huge moment for me and many others on the team.”
What made the win extra special for the team was that they never gave up and ended up narrowly winning.
“We only beat the second place alliance by one point,” said Muraco. “The competition went the best it could have possibly gone. During the last match our robot got totally trashed and part of our drivetrain stopped working and the claw almost snapped off, but we still managed to win.”
Attending the FIRST Robotics World Championships was not a cheap experience for the team since plane tickets as well as accommodations were needed. As an independent nonprofit organization and not a school club, the team gets their funding solely from outside sponsors and fundraising.
“I broke us off about five years ago and set up a separate 501(c)(3) so the ASB doesn’t control our money because they don’t give us any,” said Weissman. “We have corporate sponsors and I have a friend of mine who's a personal sponsor, who’s been with us for 11 years now and she donates a really huge chunk of money to the team, and then we have corporate sponsors from Intuitive, KLA Foundation, PG&E, places like that.”
Similar to his mindset going into regionals, Weissman just wanted the team to have fun at championships which was from April 18-23.
The last time the team qualified for world championships was in 2009. Since then, they have attended Championships a total of four times, this year making it five, but until this year, they have been doing it off of a waitlist, not because they qualified.
To begin the season, second-year member Jack Vierhus, 10, and the rest of the team watched Kickoff and then for eight hours brainstormed ideas for their 2023 robot.
“The season started with something called Kickoff, which is a livestream where they announce the game. This year we hosted Kickoff in the PAC and had a bunch of teams, as well as PG&E's CEO attend,” said Vierhus.
Keila Pound, 12, the Apes of Wrath President, guided the team through the brainstorming before they started their build season and worked together on their robot for over 20 hours a week.
“This season seemed like a difficult one initially, as the game pieces we had to score were odd, cones and inflatable cubes. But, we had tons of prototype ideas that we wanted to try out,” said Pound.
Going into regionals, the team was ranked 26 out of 37 teams but got lucky and were chosen by the first seat alliance. Lonny Weissman, who taught math at Pioneer for 11 years, is the lead mentor for the team and wasn’t expecting to make it far in the tournament because of their initial placement.
“We started off really poorly. We lost the first five matches that we were in out of the 12 that we were going to be in,” said Weissman. “We finished actually 4-8 to give you an idea how badly we felt we were doing, but we went 5-0 in the finals. I was amazed that they kept fighting and never gave up.”
Team Vice President Lexi Muraco, 10, finds that all the time that is required for them to finish their robot allows them to get to know each other well and allows them to better celebrate their big wins together.
“After working for 25 hours a week for six weeks, it is extremely rewarding to see all of our hard work pay off at competition,” said Muraco.
When the team realized they had won regionals, many members were surprised. Len Elkjer, 12, who has been on the team for two years, experienced a reaction common among the rest of the members since they were surprised but glad with the team’s victory.
“I felt an extreme rush of happiness and utter shock over the fact that we won, I even started crying,” said Elkjer. “I’m very excited as this is a huge moment for me and many others on the team.”
What made the win extra special for the team was that they never gave up and ended up narrowly winning.
“We only beat the second place alliance by one point,” said Muraco. “The competition went the best it could have possibly gone. During the last match our robot got totally trashed and part of our drivetrain stopped working and the claw almost snapped off, but we still managed to win.”
Attending the FIRST Robotics World Championships was not a cheap experience for the team since plane tickets as well as accommodations were needed. As an independent nonprofit organization and not a school club, the team gets their funding solely from outside sponsors and fundraising.
“I broke us off about five years ago and set up a separate 501(c)(3) so the ASB doesn’t control our money because they don’t give us any,” said Weissman. “We have corporate sponsors and I have a friend of mine who's a personal sponsor, who’s been with us for 11 years now and she donates a really huge chunk of money to the team, and then we have corporate sponsors from Intuitive, KLA Foundation, PG&E, places like that.”
Similar to his mindset going into regionals, Weissman just wanted the team to have fun at championships which was from April 18-23.