Robotics

LCHS Robotics

By AJ Truman and Bryn Van Orden

December 11, 2023

The Robotics team traveled to Butte on Saturday, December 3. The “sport for the mind” meet was held at Montana Tech University. 

Eureka’s three teams competed in 34 qualifying rounds. The Lazer Sharks in Space placed fourth, the Couch Potatoes were right behind them in fifth place, and the E-Hackers landed in seventh place. Twenty-seven total teams competed.  

The top four teams make it to the semi-finals, and each team has to pick an alliance team. The Lazer Sharks in Space chose the Couch Potatoes for their alliance team, while the E-Hackers were chosen by the Tesla Coils (Kimberly, Idaho) to be an alliance team. Therefore, all three Eureka teams made it to the semi-finals. The Tesla Coils and E-Hackers alliance made it to the championship and ended up placing second. 

There are various awards that teams can win at the meet. The Lazer Sharks in Space received a Third place Motivative Award (Teams need to supply an Engineering Portfolio with design plans, explain team goals and how to achieve the goals, list fundraisers and community service, as well as advertise for First Robotics Competition). 

The E-Hackers earned the First place Innovate Award sponsored by RTX (Award based on robot design, most innovative, unique, and cool), a Third place Think Award, and Second Alliance team selected award. Team rankings are not only how well a robot performs but what awards the team receives.

Advancement to the State competition is based on the awards received, and the top 18 teams get to go. All of Eureka’s teams made it to state the E-Hackers (Ryan Melton, Emily Rhodes, and Chester Kowalski), Couch Potatoes (Braeden Kubica, Cannon Pearson, Caden Garcia, and Michael Watters), and the Lazer Sharks in Space (Dillon Bagnell, Joe Bourassa, Erin Gimello, Savanna Peterson, and Connor Hanley). 

The teams all qualified at the first state qualifier at Montana Tech December 2. They plan to attend the second qualifier at East Helena High January 13 to practice and make any changes needed. 

The state meet will be held February 2 at Montana State University in Bozeman.

Sophomore Ryan Melton of the E-Hackers said, "We are excited, but still have a lot of work to do." He looks forward to attending the East Helena meet to see how his robot has improved from when they competed in Butte