The three teams, Baryons, Luxons, and Gluons, in the Robotics Club competed, but they did not place at State in Rolla, Mo., on March 4.

However, the Luxons walked away from their season prior to State with awards such as the 1st Place Innovative Award, 2nd Place Connect and Think Award, and 3rd Place Inspire Award. The Gluons received the 1st Place Inspire Award, and the 2nd Place Control, Connect, and Think Awards leading up to State.

The club focus is to build a robot to compete against other teams. Vishal Shah, senior, explain that each year there is a game or task that the robot has to perform. In this years competition, the game was Velocity Vortex. Velocity vortex is a game played with two robots from two opposing teams on a 12×12 field. The object of the game is to use the robot to lift wiffle balls and a yoga ball into the goal with the team color on it.

Shah said they were doing great and reached the State competition, but “the robot wouldn’t work with us.”

He said inconsistency of the robot was what caused them not to advance at State.

Elijah Ring, freshman, who competed in the State competition explained what qualifies someone to compete at State for robotics.

“It’s not all about the robot, it’s about your engineering notebook where you store everything that you have ever done,” Ring said.

Ring had competed on the Gluons team. When competing, his team’s robot ended up not working. He said he was a little surprised by it because his robot had been consistent before that.

Adam Cohen, freshman, competed with the Baryons. He said his team’s record was successful in every past meet and they had advanced to at least the semifinals.

Overall, he said none of the teams qualified for Super Regionals, but they performed well led by the Robotics Club’s sponsor Beth Dierker.

Evan Blanke, junior, played a different role in the Robotics Club’s road to State. Blanke said he acted as a mentor for the three other teams.

“I lended out some parts for them and gave them access to some fabricating equipment,” he said.

Blanke began on an independent team in middle school and has continued for four years in high school. He plans to continue this interest in robotics all through high school and possibly in college.