Two New Castle High School robotics teams returned from the Western Pennsylvania State VEX Robotics Competition with high honors.

Six New Castle teams competed inthe event at Clarion University, which took place prior to COVID-19 shutdowns and social distancing mandates.

Team 16101V, comprised of all seniors, tookhome trophiesfor the Excellence Award the highest award in VEX Robotics with a combination of rankings, engineering design notebook and judges interviews, andas tournament championby being undefeated in the elimination rounds.Its members are Ricky Zheng, Dylan McLaren, TeAsia Stewart, Jacob Snyder, and Sean Ayers.

Team 16101E also received the tournament Design Award at the competition.Its members, also all seniors, are Alexis Burkett, Logan Mooers, Michaela Washington, Jade Bodie, and Dashonna Drew.

Although both teams qualified to attend Vex Worlds 2020, the eventis canceled because of the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. However, next years competitive robotics students already are working remotely on designing a robot for the new games for 2020-2021, according to their teacher, Matt Dado.

All six New Castle teams did great at the VEX Robotics State Competition, Dado said. The members of Team 16101V had theirminds set on this day since our program commenced in 2016. Its unfortunate they will not be able to attend the world competition, but we definitely understand there are greater concerns at this time.

The attention to detail in their engineering notebook, robotics programming, team determination and of course the mechanical robot led them to win these major awards,he continued. Its one thing to say you want to achieve something in life, butits another thing to prepare accordingly so you have a chance to achieve it. The number of students are limited who want to come to school on a weekend or wake up at 5a.m. to leave for a competition.

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Still practicing with their robot from the season, a few weeks before the state competition, Team 16101V started building a new robot and thought they finished everything, Dado explained. However, the team members decided totaketheir original robot to the state competition instead, because the driver and programmer were more familiar with it.

At the state competition, the team workedits way through the elimination brackets, winning each round. The final round required three matches, with the team winning two of the three, taking the championship.

Team driver Dylan McLaren looked at his teacher after the last match and said, Mr. Dado, Ive been waiting for this moment since eighth grade!

When asked about the championship accomplishment, Jacob Snyder commented, It was a great way to end this chapter of my life, and I cant wait to see what the others do next year.

Upon graduation, the students all are furthering their education and have bright futures at the next level and beyond, Dado said, but its extra-special to seeJade Bodie, Alexis Burkett, TeAsia Stewart, Ricky Zheng, and Jacob Snyderall pursuing engineering or computer science degrees after they graduate.

Both of my grandfathers served our country, and not serving is my biggest regret, the teacher added.Words are not enough to express the gratitude I hold in my heart for our veterans. I would like to thank Dylan McLaren (who plans to enter the Marines) and Logan Mooers (bound for the Army)who will be serving our country, as well as all the other men and women.

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New Castle's winning robotics teams turn toward future - New Castle News