Local News

VEX Underdogs Win State; Go to Worlds

BY JOSHUA HEDGES [editor-in-chief]

After winning at regional state qualifying tournaments, three Crown Point VEX Robotics teams obtained their entry to the Indiana VEX Robotics State Championship hosted by the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on March 12. Nine of Crown Point High School’s VEX robotics teams competed at the State Tournament, but only A team, G team and W team continued into the World Tournament. The State Tournament bracket differed from the Regional Tournament with the addition of a second division, which split the entire roster of teams in half. The finalists from these divisions would then compete to be State Champion.

Member of A team senior Myles Querimit thinks this year was a “huge improvement” from how Crown Point teams did last year.

“Last year, we had eight teams in our organization and only three made it to State, so now with more teams we get into State. We did really, really good as an organization, and I’m really happy for all of us,” said Querimit.

Member of G team senior Hannah Flewelling briefs us on her team’s performance at the tournament.

“We went 3-3 in qualification matches. We won three, we lost three, but then we got picked up by a higher ranked team for eliminations, making it to the quarterfinals before losing to 1233W, when they were done. We won the Interview Award, which qualifies us for the World Championship,” Flewelling said.

Querimit felt that his team did not match the performance they had at their previous tournament.

“Up until the tournament actually right before, we won every single match, qualifications including elimination, and we went undefeated for the entirety of the day. Then we came home with a win,” Querimit said. “We weren’t able to win State, sadly, but we were able to place top eleven in the entirety of Indiana, in terms of skills.”

Skill matches test the abilities of the driver and autonomous programming of the robot and are separate from the competitive VEX matches.

While many teams qualified for the Worlds Tournament through their performance at the State tournament, Flewelling said in an email that W team was able to qualify for the Worlds Tournament first through their high skills score at the Northeast Wisconsin BRC Showdown, a signature event. W team was also a finalist at the State tournament.

Prior to the State tournament, some teams made modifications to their robot. A team in particular made redesigns to their robot before and after the State tournament after being inspired by teams at a signature tournament in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and at the State tournament.

“Just made it completely faster, lighter. We shaved, I think, two or three pounds from our old bot,” Querimit said.” We made it significantly faster in terms of linear speed. Additionally, we made the body a lot more smooth in general.”

Autonomous programming and driving practice were common focuses the three teams had in mind when preparing for the Worlds Tournament that occurred on April 25. The season ended with A team winning the Build Award, W team as Division Finalists, and G team getting up to the round of 16 in their division.