The Belleville robotics team, The Bellevillians team 6615, competed at the FIRST in Michigan State Championship at Saginaw University on April 3rd-5th and the FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas on April 16- 19th for the second time.
The Bellevillians started their season competing at their home event. After qualification matches the team ranked 17 out of 40 teams. The team placed second with their alliance captain, 247 da Bears, and the team 6566, the Battering Rams. With these accomplishments, the team gained 48 district points toward states. Two weeks later, the team went to the Renaissance event at Renaissance High School in Detroit. The Bellevillains ranked 7 out of 39 teams after qualification matches. The team then went on to win the whole event with their alliance captain team 2960 Automation Nation and team 9252 Wingspan. The team also won the Engineering Inspiration Award, which celebrates the team that shows outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within their school and community. These accomplishments gave the team 72 district points toward states. In total, after their two competitions, the Bellevillians gained a total of 120 district points and ranked 23 out of 526 teams in Michigan.
The Bellevillans started off with a rough first day at the state competition. The team blew a motor in their first match of the day, leaving their elevator slow for their next two matches. The team fixed their robot for their last match of the day and ended off with a nice win. The next day, the team set a field high record of 247 with teams 2137 The Oxford Robocats and team 2075 Enigma Robotics. At the end of Friday night the team went on to get selected first by the 8th alliance captain team 1498 The Polar Pilots. The captains second pick would be team 245 the Adambots. The alliance fought to stay in the next day but unfortunately fell to two stronger alliances. Even though the team didn’t make it as far as they did last year the team still had fun and met new people from all over Michigan. When asking Junior and Logistic member Allie Horchem what was the most exciting thing that happened this weekend she said, “When I found out that we were confirmed to go to worlds.”
That’s right, not only did the Bellevillians rock out at their first two competitions and states, they earned enough points to qualify them for the World Championship in Houston Texas. The team ended in Michigan ranked 57 out of 525 teams with 189 district points.
Two weeks later the team traveled over 1,000 miles to Houston Texas to compete at the world championship against some of the best teams in the world. The Bellevillains were put on the Curie division field which hosted most of the best teams in the world. The team battled it out during qualification matches and finished ranked 57th out of 76 teams. Unfortunately the team did not get picked for the playoffs. Even though the team didn’t make it far that weekend, the things they learned from the robotics season will forever be with them.
“The Best diamonds might not always shine the brightest.” – John Laginess, Build team member and Belleville High School Freshmen.
