Over the weekend, the robotics team placed fourth overall in the St. Joe FIRST Robotics District Competition. The members of Buc N’ Gears made it to the semifinals but lost. They also won the industrial safety award for their careful consideration of all the regulations.

The team has been working for six weeks to build their robot for the competition. Their game-playing robot was put to the test when crossing enemy defenses and launching foam boulders into their opponents’ towers.

“It was fun competing against other schools and teams, while still being friendly with each other between matches in the pits, where we fix the robot,” team member sophomore Ryan Klahorst said. “Even though the stress was high, the amount of work we put into this competition was definitely worth it.”

Our team had one of the larger fan bases but hope to see it continue to increase in size.

“The competitions are very high pace,” Klahorst said. “It would be awesome to see support from our school, since we were one of the few teams to have over 35 people cheering them on.”