Saturday, May 11th, was the day that the Robotics team at SWHS competed in and won the CT State Robotics Championship. The championship was organized by the CIAC and was located at the Hartford State Armory in Hartford, Connecticut. Teams all throughout Connecticut competed, but South Windsor was able to make it to the finals and win the whole thing.

The competition started off with each team competing in the qualification matches, where one team would work with two other teams to compete against another team of three. This was done in order for each team to win ranking points and to be ranked. South Windsor played in qualification matches 4, 8, 17, and 21. Since they won three of those four matches, they moved on to the next round, which was quarterfinals.

Junior, Ethan Bushman, a driver, explains that after the qualification matches, “you get to pick your alliance if you’re in the top 8. We were ranked number two, so we got to pick our first teammate second.” The alliance or teams that South Windsor chose to compete with them for quarterfinals stuck with them throughout the rest of the competition. This year, South Windsor chose Aces High, a team from Windsor Locks and Suffield, and Mercy High School’s robotics team from Middletown. Junior, Sam Pierce, a member on the robotics team, mentions that they got to pick their “dream team.” This “dream team” competed in two quarterfinal matches and won both of them, which brought them to compete in the semifinals.

In semifinals, South Windsor also competed in two matches and won both of them by a substantial amount. With this lead, they went on to finals, which were very hard and stressful for them.

South Windsor’s alliance started off finals with a loss by one point. The other team, which had Groton, Southington, and Winchester as an alliance, were very strong in the beginning, but this didn’t last long. South Windsor and it’s alliance competed in the next two matches and won both of them. They won the second match by one point and the third match by three points. This lead South Windsor to victory, along with their alliance. They became the champions of the Connecticut State Robotics Championship.

Pierce states that her favorite part of the competition was “right after we found out we won. Everyone was cheering and screaming, it really felt like all of the stress was worth it.” Bushman agrees and adds on that winning was, “fun and exciting”. Not only this, but he also mentions that “we haven’t won that event in five years and we finally won it again. It was great.”

Overall, the Connecticut State Robotics Championship was a success for the robotics team at SWHS and members of the team are proud of how well they did. Next for the team is one more competition, the Wolcott Invitational, that will be held on June 1st, 2019.