Maddie Buckner, a member of Team 4265 of Oak Ridge High School, is pictured above with Professor Woodie Flowers at the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship in St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday, April 25, 2015. (Photos by Angi Agle)
An alliance that included the Secret City Wildbots of Oak Ridge High School finished second in the final championship round at the FIRST Robotics Competition in St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday.
It’s the highest achievement in the five-year history of Team 4265, Oak Ridge Board of Education member Angi Agle said.
The Secret City Wildbots were picked to join a four-team alliance with the first- and second-place ranked teams and made it into the elimination rounds on Saturday. That alliance won the Hopper Subdivision and advanced to the finals, the Einstein round, which was also on Saturday.
The alliance included:
- Team 987, Highrollers, of Las Vegas, Nevada;
- Team 2826, Wave Robotics, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin;
- Team 4265, Secret City Wildbots, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and
- Team 2512, Duluth East Daredevils, Duluth, Minnesota.
Agle and Stella Schramm of Oak Ridge sent updates during the competition on Saturday.
The Wildbots alliance won its first quarterfinal round 235-205 and was ranked number one, a ranking it held headed to the semifinals and finals, Agle said. The alliance won its first round of finals 268-185 and won the Hopper Subdivision.
The alliance made it to the finals in the Einstein rounds (world championship—best of all divisions), but lost in the finals, Agle said.
Still, that was a second-place finish in the world championships, Schramm said.
Schramm said the Highrollers are a “truly incredible team.
“Whatever happens, this will be an incredible experience for our team, to work with the top two teams in the Hopper Division qualifiers,” she said.
The winning alliance, which has been in the Newton Subdivision, was:
- Team 118, Robonauts, of League City, Texas;
- Team 1678, Citrus Circuits, of Davis, California;
- Team 1671, Buchanan Bird Brains, of Clovis, California; and
- Team 5012, Gryffingear, of Palmdale, California.
You can see match information here.
More than 18,000 students, ages 6 to 18, participated in the FIRST Championship events in St. Louis last week. See a press release that includes more information on the events and winners here.
See a video from Saturday’s competition here.
See previous stories on the Secret City Wildbots here.
Team member Juan Vidal is pictured above with Woodie Flowers.
Team 4265 celebrates its advance to the Einstein (world championship) final rounds.
